


A cascade of wonderful things

by Amazaria



Category: One Piece
Genre: (major?) character death, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, How does one tag multichapter fics?, Involving Doflamingo only to have an excuse to beat him up: the fic, Marineford Arc, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pissing off Sengoku and other things to do when seperated from your crew, Rated T for swears, Short Chapters, The author's insistent feelings about Strawhat loyalty, The author's lie about her never writing fix-it, have you heard of my thesis that Nami is very cool and very smart, no guys I swear this is a fix-it, no? well you're about to!, striving for some sort of realism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-26
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:27:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 25,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23863015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazaria/pseuds/Amazaria
Summary: Out of all the things Ace doesn't expect to happen today, getting pushed off the platform by one of his executioners is high on the list.But, you know, since his little brother fell from the sky then challenged his captain for the Pirate King's throne, maybe that's his mistake. Maybe he should have expected it.(or: in which Nami makes good use of her Mirage Tempo, Ace is very surprised, Whitebeard very happy, and Sengoku extremely homicidal.)
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Nami, Portgas D. Ace & Whitebeard Pirates
Comments: 488
Kudos: 1287





	1. no point in waking up

The past who-knows-how-many hours have been nothing but a nightmare.

From the tense hours before his execution, to seeing his captain stabbed in the back, and wounded, all because of him.

This is everything Ace has never wanted to happen again. This is Grey Terminal and Sabo's death all over again; this is helplessness and people dying because of _him,_ because he couldn't get past his foolish pride, because he couldn't be reasonable, or better yet, never have existed, never have ruined anything.

This is a nightmare; this is worst than a nightmare, because it's real. Ace looks over Marineford's battlefield, Marineford's graveyard, wishing and begging for it to end, or for him to end, and nobody answers him.

Luffy bleeds, and his crew dies, and his father coughs up blood, and nothing ends, nothing stops, everything goes on and on until Ace can feel the guilt and sorrow blocking his throat so tight it takes him all he has not to collapse.

This all his fault, this is all because of him. This wouldn't have happened without him, this shouldn't have happened, but it is happening, and they're all fighting over him, so the only thing that can stop it is him dying. 

So when Sengoku orders his death, finally, finally, Ace closes his eyes and bows his head and- waits.

For it all to be over.

Because him dying is the only way to fix this.

oOo

Sengoku calls for Ace's death, and the entire battlefield freezes, for a single second.

Then everyone starts to fight with renewed energy; satisfaction for the Marines, desperation for the pirates. The fight has been going forever; it looks like it's finally nearing its end. Whitebeard is in no shape to stop the blade swinging down; they have no other allies powerful enough; no one is close enough.

It's going to end.

Or so everyone thinks, until-

oOo

Monkey D. Luffy _screams,_ and the world stops.

Sengoku should have expected it.

His attention, his Observation's Haki, had been entirely focused on Whitebeard- there is nothing more dangerous than a father pushed to his last resorts, and Sengoku had been aware of it. He hadn't cared for anyone else, not the insignificant threats battling his men below, not his admirals scattered all over the battlefield, not the Warlords' dances of betrayal and destruction. Not Garp's grief, sharp and anguished at his side.

Monkey D. Luffy orders, and they are crushed under his panic and fury. Bodies drop to the floor, allies and enemies alike.

Sengoku narrows his eyes, and, like every other user on the battlefield, focuses his Armament's Haki around himself to reject the wave coming at him. He belatedly focuses some of his Observation's Haki towards the boy, and keeps most of it towards Whitebeard's silhouette; one surprise is enough.

He doesn't look at his side; the executioners were low-ranks Marines, men picked out because they had no family to be killed as revenge, no hope at becoming powerful enough to matter. Chosen just because their death would, ultimately, not matter one bit. There's no way they resisted this.

Gol D. Ace is still alive; he's powerful enough to register on his Observation's Haki, even focused elsewhere. He won't survive long; he's already given up. Sengoku doesn't have to care about him.

He looks ahead instead of right in front of him, planning for the future, curses Garp's bloodline, Roger's bloodline, Whitebeard's foolish sentimentality, and doesn't realize his mistake, until-

oOo

The sharp cut of Seastone-infused blades never comes.

Luffy screams, or begs, or demands; whichever.

The world stops to listen to him, because of course it does, because it's Luffy asking, and Ace feels his eyes widen. He stares, pays no attention to the body falling beside him-

Wait.

Body? Singular?

"Please don't make me regret this more than I already am," says a woman's voice.

And then his handcuffs unlock, and Ace is pushed off the execution platform.


	2. lion's den

Okay, so maybe Nami is as stupid as the rest of her crew.

Maybe Usopp's the sensible one. Usopp wouldn't have done this. Usopp would not have snuck into Marineford, infiltrated an organization their captain technically also declared war on about two months ago, and then decided to stand right next to the Marines' fleet admiral while planning to free his most prized prisoner.

(Usopp definitely would have done this. It's for Luffy; what does she expect?)

This isn't even the most stupid thing Nami's ever done, because she trusted Arlong would keep his word for years. This is not the weirdest thing she's ever done, because she was almost married to an invisible-zombie-lion-man not a month ago. This is probably the most terrifying thing she's ever done, but then again her mother was killed in front of her eyes when she was little, so maybe not.

This is definitely the most dangerous thing she's ever done, and she doesn't even have her crew by her side.

At least at Enies Lobby, she had Luffy to guide her, and her crewmates to draw strength from, and Robin's tears to draw hate toward the World Government from.

Now, all she has is the memory of Luffy's smile as he talked with Ace; all she has his the knowledge of how she would feel if Nojiko was killed; all she has is her loyalty towards her captain and that unrelenting compassion she never managed to hide that well.

It's not much, but it's enough.

She's going to save Portgas D. Ace, or die trying. Probably more of the latter than the former.

Sounds like a plan, right?

oOo

Getting to Ace's execution platform is surprisingly easy. Stealing the keys to his handcuffs is even easier. It involves knocking someone out, locking him into a random room, and being very thankful for her Mirage Tempo, and then she's one of the executioners scheduled to kill Portgas D. Ace.

Easy!

Standing in front of the _Marines' fleet admiral_ and not dying of fear is fucking impossible.

Fortunately, her shaking knees do not seem to register very high on the commanding officer's list of problems. Someone- an admiral? a vice-admiral? a commodore?- leads her and her partner to the execution platform, and Sengoku raises an eyebrow at them, says "I expect you to do your job perfectly, executioners", and immediately dismisses them to go tend to some other business.

Nami steps forward, towards Ace, does not say anything because she has no idea if he'd have the same reaction as Luffy would and she just cannot risk it, and turns back towards the other executioner.

"Maybe we should have gotten water. It doesn't start until like, five or four hours."

"Ri- right," says the men, clearly as terrified as she is and much less used to not showing it. He's looking at the empty water in front of them like it's about to leap out of the bay and spontaneously drown him. 

(He's also looking at Ace like the blood of Gol D. Roger is going to poison him at a distance. 

Nami despises him.)

"Right! Right, I should go get that, I mean, you're right, no point just standing here, not like we need to kill him that soon, I mean, we could, and we will eventually, but-"

"Go," says Nami. "I'll watch him, and then- we'll exchange, yeah? I mean, he's cuffed, right, what can happen?"

The guy nods, and finally disappears from the platform. Nami does not let out a sigh of relief because that would be a very embarrassing way to get caught.

She kneels behind Ace- he hasn't opened his eyes or given any sign he's heard anything that happened since Nami came up. As she pretends to tighten his cuffs, or check them, or whatever, she takes out her Clima-Tact, creates the quickest and most crucial Mirage Tempo of her entire life, probably, then three or four more on top of it for good measure, and unlocks the manacles just enough that she'll just have to shove a hairpin in there later to free him. Technically, Ace is still very solidly attached, and he can strain against the chains all he wants, nothing will happen. If Nami does it, however...

That done, she backs away hurriedly, readjusts her hat, hopes her Mirage Tempo is holding up, and tries not to die of stress.

And then she waits.

oOo

Waiting turns out to be the most stressful part of the operation.

At one point, the other guy returns, looking no more reassured, and nods towards her; she nods back, climbs down the platform, wanders around in Marineford like she knows what she's doing, and resists the persistent urge to lock herself in a room and hyperventilate. She re-does her Mirage Tempo, even if it hadn't started to dissipate at all. 

Eventually, she goes back up, distracts the other executioner enough to cast like, 5 other Mirage Tempo just in case, and then Sengoku comes back up.

And then Whitebeard arrives.

And then the battle starts.

She watches on, equally amazed at the power as she is horrified by the violence. She watches, and watches, and listens to Ace beg for Whitebeard to give up on him. She hears Whitebeard refuse. She pointedly does not think of Belmer's death.

(She wishes she had a Marine flag to burn.)

Her captain falls from the sky, battered and bruised and ready to save what matters to him, and she remembers not to fall to her knees in relief at the last second only.

Her captain fights, because that's what he does, and she focuses solely on him and watches as he unrelentingly advances.

(How hurt is he? Where did he come from? Is that _Crocodile?_ And _Buggy?_ )

She watches on, and on, and waits for the right moment, and almost frees Ace a hundred times, always holding off at the last second because their allies are just too far away, and the Marines too numerous. Once they get closer, she tells herself, and pointedly does not think of the fact that the second Sengoku orders for the blades to fall she'll have no choice but to do it.

And then, well. Sengoku orders for the blades to fall. No more delaying possible.

Nami raises her blade. Prays to whoever is listening. Steps on the manacles just enough to unlock them, vaguely registers that the other executioners and the majority of the soldiers below just collapsed-

Whispers "please don't make me regret this more than I already am"-

Pushes the Marines' most prized prisoner and the sole reason for the war happening in front of her off the execution platform-

And jumps off after him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also known as: this would have been a one-shot had I not needed to separate the flashback from the introduction somehow


	3. looking up (watch your back)

_What the fuck,_ is Ace's first and most distinct thought.

_What the FUCK_ , is his second.

Only then does his body registers that he's falling towards a certain death, and also- that he's not the only one falling.

One of his executioners -the one that had tightened his handcuffs while shaking all the while earlier, who is apparently suddenly a woman and also not wearing a Marine uniform- is right there with him, and also screaming.

"Protect me protect me _protect me_ I can't survive that!" She yells.

Well, she just saved his life. The least he can do is return the favor.

oOo

Noticing that one of his no-name executioners just resisted Monkey D. Luffy's wave of Conqueror's Haki and then _freed_ his prisoner might be the thing that finally gives Sengoku a heart attack.

"HOW _,_ " he screams at the ball of fire that presumably contains both Fire Fist Ace and whoever the fuck is going to die a most violent death.

" _ACE!"_ Screams the rest of the battlefield, and, right. The rest of the battlefield, that's what he should focus on, because this is no doubt one of Whitebeard's numerous trick-

(But how? They had taken care to know every single Whitebeard crewmember or ally. They had kept a tight eye on their ranks, had not accepted any new Marine, had kept Marineford on lockdown for months before the war.

Short of someone dropping from the sky, invisible, there is no way anyone could have infiltrated the headquarters.)

The battlefield is busy staring at the flaming silhouette of Whitebeard's 2nd division commander, who is presently busy reminding everyone _why_ he's a division commander while also protecting the cowering silhouette behind him. On top of that, the soldiers knocked by the Conqueror's Haki aren't waking up yet, so that means that he has considerably fewer enemies than he would have had ten minutes ago.

Whitebeard, from very far away, starts to laugh out loud.

Sengoku is going to kill somebody.

oOo

Edward Newgate, in his life, is very rarely as surprised as he is now.

Watching Red-Hair's brat knock out half of the battlefield -including his own sons, does the kid have no control?- had already been a shock, if a somewhat expected one, because after all that was Red-Hair's brat, and Edward had already decided that for once the man had made a good decision choosing that one as successor.

Watching Ace finally get away from the platform and start fighting again is delightful.

Seeing Sengoku get completely blindsided is the best thing he's seen in a long time.

He starts to laugh out loud, and Marco, hovering by his side, follows him. The high of victory doesn't last long, but enough for him to get over his most recent bout of illness.

"Good," he grins, and Marco turns towards him to share the same elated smile. "Tell Ace it's time to come home, everyone!"

Edward Newgate hasn't had such a good surprise in a long time.

oOo

"Holy fuck holy fuck _holy fuck_ that was terrifying," breathes Nami as she touches the ground without dying, which is a good surprise. "We're running?"

Ace grins at her. "Thanks for the help," he says nonchalantly, as if Nami didn't just save his life. "Can you fight?"

_Nope. Nope nope nope there's no way I can fight anyone here. I can technically fight, but if I fight anyone here I will die,_ thinks Nami. "If worst comes to worst, maybe?" She squeaks instead.

They're still engulfed in an inferno of flames, and Ace nods and directs his attention elsewhere for a moment. "Okay." He grins fiercely. "Obviously we're going to have to talk later, but until we get to my crew, I suggest that you hide behind me, and I fight, and we run. Don't worry, I'm a good fighter, I should be able to avoid hitting you."

"Good," says Nami. "So we run, now?"

Ace's smile turns sharper.

"You run. I fight."

Nami's okay with that.

oOo

Monkey D. Garp is having a bad day.

It's not the worst day, though it has the potential to become it. But it's not, not yet.

"Garp," snarls Sengoku. "After them."

Garp hesitates-

" _Go._ "

Garp jumps after his grandson.

Unfortunately (fortunately?), Ace is fast, and whoever is with him -not powerful enough to register on Garp's Haki, but apparently smart enough to disrupt the course of an entire war- is as fast as him.

Also unfortunately (fortunately?), the pirates have gained on the Marines quite a lot, and Ace probably doesn't have to run that long to reach his allies.

Even more unfortunately, Garp has a second grandson made of rubber, who can jump very far away very fast.

Garp has no desire to fight both of his grandsons, or even only one of his grandsons. Garp doesn't really have a choice.

Monkey D. Garp is having a very bad day.

oOo

("Wait," says Buggy the Clown from very far away. "I know that one-")

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah! I lured you in with the promise of plot and seriousness and now you're emotionally invested in what turned out to be slapstick comedy and a complete mess of POVs!


	4. family reunions (or something approaching)

Ivankov has no idea what to expect from this war anymore.

Someone breaking into Impel Down? Fine. That someone being Dragon's son? Why not. Dragon's son being Gol D. Ace's brother? Heard weirder. Seen weirder. Done weirder. Dragon's son being an impossibility that defied every logical odds and wouldn't listen to anyone? Honestly, it wasn't that surprising. Ivankov used to work with Dragon, and in that regard, he and his son are frighteningly similar.

So they escape Impel Down, and rush into Marineford, okay. Luffy challenges Whitebeard the second he sees him, very bold decision but to be expected from what Ivankov knows of Luffy. Whitebeard _doesn't_ kill Luffy on the spot, a welcome surprise.

They have to fight Kuma.

(Ivankov's out of the loop, and they need to _not be out of the loop,_ and to talk to Dragon, and they need to do it right now.

Why did they have to fight Kuma?

What are Pacifistas?

What happened to Kuma?)

Whitebeard gets stabbed, well, those are pirates, after all, betrayal is to be expected, isn't it? Even in a crew like Whitebeard's.

Whitebeard's forgives Squard. None of Ivankov's business.

Luffy unleashes Conqueror's Haki. What the fuck.

Ace gets freed by one of the executioners. What the _fuck._

Luffy rushes towards his brother without waiting for anyone, and turns towards the executioner, and the woman calls Dragon's son "Captain".

_What the fuck._

oOo

"ACE," screams Luffy the second he's close enough for his brother to hear. "ACE, YOU'RE HERE!"

"Yeah," says Ace, grinning, knocking the Marines approaching with a blast of flames absentmindedly. His expression changes suddenly. "Luffy, what were you thinking? You're not even out of Paradise yet! Where's your crew, how did you get here? Are you suicidal, you could have died!"

Luffy just grins. "I had to save you," he explains, and rams his feet into the nearest pile of bodies, dodging Ace's fireball easily.

"You're my little brother, you don't save me! I save you, idiot!"

"They said they were going to kill you, I had to come!"

"Never do that again," orders Ace. "Fighting Admirals? And- you didn't even save me, someone else did!"

"Right!" Exclaims Luffy. "Where are they, I should say thank you, that's what Makino said you had to do for Shanks!"

Ace turns away to check that his savior hasn't died yet, and finds her standing nearby, looking exhausted and like she's seen the first good thing of her day.

"Captain," says the woman who saved Ace's life, and the commander watches his brother's face darken for a moment, and then in an instant-

get infinitely brighter.

"Nami!" He says.

oOo

Nami's so terrified she could cry.

This is so out of her league. She's going to die. She's going to die, and she won't have made a map of the world, and Nojiko and Genzo are going to be so sad, _what is she doing_ _here_.

So when her captain propels himself towards them, she's on the edge of some sort of nervous breakdown. She wants Sunny. She wants her crew. She wants her home back, because she hasn't seen them in so long, and she misses them, and honestly fuck Kuma. Fuck it all; fuck the Weatheria old man that took so long to show her the newspaper, fuck the cloud thingy she had to threaten them into driving, fuck Marineford and the Marines and the fact that up until Luffy showed up she was so certain she was going to die alone and break everyone's hearts.

She wants _home_ , and Luffy isn't home, not exactly, but he's honestly good enough right now. He's great. He's the best thing Nami's seen all day. He's her _captain_ , and if he's here she's marginally safer than with Ace, because at least then she's _Luffy's navigator_ and not _that one random person who saved Ace._

"Captain," she chokes out.

Luffy looks at her, and for a second he doesn't recognize her -probably because of the dye on her hair, stolen from one of the homes in Marineford and applied just in case anyone had heard of Cat Burglar Nami before-, but then he breaks into his familiar grin, and oh, Nami could cry.

She's not going to, they don't have the time, but she _could._

"Nami!" He says, and Ace says " _what_?" and Nami smiles and takes her first full breath of the day.

"Hey, Captain. Looks like Zoro contaminated us all, because we've gotten horribly lost. Lucky you found me."

oOo

Luffy's really relieved.

First of all- Ace's free! He's angry at Luffy, but he's not really, and it's going to be fine, because he's free and he's stopped saying stupid things like "give up" or "not worth it", and he's _here,_ and they're going to win now. Ace is here.

Second- Nami's here! Which is great, because Nami's the greatest navigator ever and she probably knows how to get them out of Marineford once they escape. But it's mostly great because she's _Nami_ , and she's part of his crew, and she's _here._ He likes the friends he made in Impel Down well enough, but Nami's better. Also, she's the one who freed Ace, probably by lying and being smart and stealing things. Luffy has the best navigator ever.

Even if she looks scared. She looks like how she did in front of Enel, or worst, Arlong, and he doesn't know why. She's smiling, at least, which is good, because Luffy made a promise to that one old man when they were at her home, and he doesn't break promises.

"Well, apparently you found him more than he found you," says Ace. "You're _Luffy's navigator?_ "

"Yeah!" Answers Luffy enthusiastically. "Nami, are you okay? How come you're here?"

She opens her mouth to answer, but then-

"UNGRATEFUL BRATS," shouts a familiar voice nearby.

And Garp the Hero lands in front of them.

oOo

Garp lands in front of his grandsons, and tells himself this is for the best.

Better him, than any of the admirals, than Doflamingo or worse, Sengoku.

( _What are you going to do?_ Asks a voice inside his head.

He can't let Ace go; he's a criminal. But he can't bring him back; they'll kill him. But he can't let him go; he's the whole reason they're here. But he can't bring him back; he's his grandson.

He's his grandson. He's a criminal. He saved him as a child; he can't save him now.

He can.

He can't.

And Luffy? Dragon's son, and that's known worldwide now. He can't let him go either. He's a pirate too. He burned Enies Lobby.

For a friend.

(How very Luffy.)

_Two grandsons, two criminals, and a choice you never wanted to make_ , says a voice in his head. _So what are you going to do, now?_ )

"I told you," says Garp. "I told you to become Marines, and to follow the rules. I told you! And you had to become pirates still!"

"I'm going to be Pirate King, Gramps!" Shouts Luffy, frowning.

"I never would have made a good Marine," retorts Ace, taking on a fighting stance.

"No," says the woman at their side. "That's not happening, I refuse. Luffy, permission to run?"

"Stay here, I've got to protect you," orders Luffy, suddenly serious, glancing back at her.

She looks surprised for a moment, blinking and almost like she's going to protest, but she nods.

"On second thought, running didn't work that well last time. Got it, Captain!"

She takes a step back, spinning in her hands what looks like a metallic pipe, and turns to face the rest of the soldiers watching the discussion. "I'll just take care of the rest of them, then."

"If you want to stop us, shitty Gramps," declares Ace, "then we're going to have to fight."

"Like I'm scared of you brats!" Roars Garp, as if he hasn't been questioning his loyalty to his morals since the start of the war. "Bring it on!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marineford isn't Marineford without inter-family conflicts
> 
> (I have no idea what pronoun to use for Ivankov because Oda invented one in Japanese for them, so I'm going with they/them! The wiki said "he" but ehhhhh that felt uncomfortable. If anyone has a better idea or thinks that I shouldn't use they/them pronouns for whatever reason, please tell me! I don't promise I'll change it but I will take it into consideration!)


	5. the start of something bloody

So far, Doflamingo's been having a middling day.

Leaving the New World for a petty Marine war had greatly annoyed him the first time he heard about it, and he still despises being away from Dressrosa, or the New World. Paradise is dull and absolutely ridiculous in its optimism, and Doflamingo never really sailed it, but he still can't say he missed it.

The war in itself has been- well, surprising is the least one could say. Irritating at first, what with the waiting, and the orders, and the self-righteous Marines thinking they could make _him_ wait or give him orders. Fun, once the fighting started. Unexpected, once Monkey D. Luffy came along, he and his Revolutionaries allies, that seemed unaware of anything regarding Pacifistas. 

Now? It's becoming _interesting_.

He has no idea who's the girl who saved Ace, but given the look on Sengoku's face she won't survive long. So maybe he could do the fleet admiral a favor, and rid him of his traitorous employee...

He dodges Crocodile's sand easily enough and prepares to leap into the air. The brothers are fighting their grandfather, and the girl has her back turned to them, like she thinks she's safe.

She's not even powerful enough to appear on his Haki: easy prey.

He lunges towards her, and just as he's about to strike-

"Did you know," says someone from Ivankov's head, "that strings don't work that well when you cut them?"

And isn't _that_ bound to be interesting?

oOo

_Okay_ , thinks Nami as soon as she turns towards the soldiers looking at her so warily. _Okay, I can do this._

This is Enies Lobby all over; her against Kalifa, on the edge of panicking and never really getting there. Her mind is as calm as it can be given the situation, because anything less means death, and Nami'd really prefer to avoid that, please and thank you.

Most of the people in front of her are somewhat high-ranking Marines, the ones that didn't collapse suddenly for some weird reason. They seem to have been the strongest of the bunch, which is not ideal, but fewer enemies means less to focus on, and Nami really isn't that much of a heavy hitter.

She can't remember if ice conducts electricity. She's pretty sure electrocuting herself is not the way to go to survive, so overuse of Thunder Lance Tempo and Mirage Tempo it is. And if she can get her Heat Balls to melt the ice discreetly enough-

Well, she hopes the really angry mob coming at her likes to swim.

oOo

Marco is _not going to leave his father's side._

No matter how many times his captain sends him pointed looks; no matter how many times Kizaru mocks and taunts him; no matter how much he wants to kill Sengoku, swat Ace over the head, and be done with this war once and for all.

As long as Whitebeard doesn't order, Marco doesn't have to obey; and as long as he's free to do as he pleases, he's going to protect his father, and kill anyone who tries to get to him.

He's not going to leave, but he wishes he could, because-

Garp the Fist is going against Ace, and Marco doesn't know how that's going to end. Family going against family, once again; he spares a glare at Squard, who flinches back.

(Whitebeard's merciful. Marco? Much less.

He's the first mate. Whatever his captain can't do, he does. Even if that means getting rid of traitors.)

It's painfully clear none of the three men want to fight; Ace keeps letting himself get hit and dissolving in flames because Garp isn't using Haki, and Monkey D. Luffy's aim is suddenly terrible, that is when he actually is fighting his grandfather and not knocking down soldiers aiming for Ace's savior that Marco is pretty sure she could have gotten rid of herself, given that apparently she can control _lightning._

None of them want to fight, but eventually, they'll have to. Marco doesn't know what's keeping Sengoku up here, eyes narrowed and stuck on his captain, when his prisoner escaped already, but the fleet admiral is bound to leave his spot at some point, and if Ace and Luffy have to face Garp and Sengoku, Marco knows who he'd bet on.

And then Sengoku activates his Devil Fruit. He glows gold, and then, suddenly-

leaps towards Whitebeard.

_Oh, fuck,_ thinks Marco as he realizes what's about to happen.

His captain just laughs. 

"Irritated to have been cornered, Fleet Admiral? Well, guess it's time to see who, of the old era, really is the Strongest Man in the World!"

(There's nothing, or precious little, Marco can do about Sengoku.

But he's the first mate, and he's not going to leave his father's side.)

oOo

Sengoku has been leading the Marines for about fifty years, and this is not his best decision.

This whole war is not his best decision. He should have had Gol D. Ace executed quietly, without anyone knowing about it. That would have been so much simpler, and so much less headache-inducing. Sengoku has the biggest headache he's ever had.

A fleet admiral doesn't fight. _Sengoku_ doesn't fight. He's not a pirate, he's a Marine, and there's an entire hierarchy supposed to fight for him, and apparently _they're all useless._

So fine. He'll do it himself. He'll go end it with Whitebeard, who managed to outsmart him yet again even if he's a pirate, and then he'll kill Gol D. Ace, who managed to outsmart him as a baby, and then he'll kill the girl who made him look like an idiot in front of the entire world, and then maybe he'll retire to not have to contemplate his failures.

That sounds like a plan.

But first, he'll wipe the smug smile off of Whitebeard's head.

oOo

The fleet admiral just left his station and stole his fight, so it's fair enough that Sakazuki does that, too.

Whitebeard is infuriating, and he won't die, and he _won't stop calling Sakazuki a brat._

As if a _pirate_ could be better than a Marine Admiral. As if Newgate hasn't been heavily wounded by said- _brat,_ while Sakazuki himself is perfectly fine.

The old man is being delusional, and it's _pissing Sakazuki off._

So, fine. He'll go after his precious _family,_ and Gol D. Ace is looking like a perfectly good target right now.

And maybe while he's at it, he'll get Garp too. He's not looking like the upright Marine Sakazuki had begrudgingly respected right now.

One stone, two birds.

oOo

("Benn-" starts to say Shanks, uncharacteristically serious, and his first mate looks at him and nods.

"Nearly there, Captain.")

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every single Marine in this chapter should have anger management lessons. Look at Doflamingo! Doflamingo's /great/ at anger management!


	6. standstill

Okay, so so far Buggy's been surviving.

Even if this is the worst. This is worst than getting caught, thrown into Impel Down, and dragged around in Impel Down by Strawhat combined. _This_ is why Buggy stuck to East Blue.

Captain Roger would have jumped headfirst into this kind of mess, like Whitebeard did, and that's just proof that they're both insane.

(This is Captain Roger's _son._ This is Rouge's son, and Buggy is not thinking about it. It's not his business anymore; Captain Roger disbanded the crew too long ago.)

And apparently even them can't survive those sorts of things; apparently even Emperors have to falter sometimes, and even Captains have to disappoint.

Whitebeard is holding his own honorably, all things considered; his earthquakes are well time and tend to make Sengoku miss or lose his balance, and they have the added bonus of wrecking the poor soldiers trying to help their fleet admiral, as if monsters like that need help when they tear into equally terrifying enemies.

But it's clear who's winning, here. It's clear who went into the fight headfirst and who let his men die for him before finally getting irritated enough to involve himself in the fight. As much as Buggy despises Sengoku's tactic, it's working, and Whitebeard keeps coughing up blood, and his first mate stopped looking worried minutes ago and now looks heartbroken. He reluctantly takes flight, looking back at his dying father.

Captain's orders, uh?

Ha. Buggy can sympathize, even if they're the ones who get themselves into this mess.

oOo

There's too much going on, is Nami's assessment of the situation. There's too many people, and too many fights, and she might be naturally observant and smart but she can feel herself getting tired.

Unfortunately, she can't count on someone from the crew coming to rescue her, this time. Luffy keeps checking up on her, and if she was as brave as Zoro she might have yelled at him to focus on this fight and take her seriously, but actually she's pretty sure he saved her life thrice in the last three minutes.

The Marines have started to catch onto the fact that getting close to her is a bad idea, and getting close to her clouds is a bad idea, and shooting at her all at once is bound to make her captain scowl and send the bullets right back to where they came from. Things are at a standstill.

Things are at a standstill, and Nami isn't even where the Marines think she is, because Mirage Tempo is the greatest thing she ever made. Her hands are sore from clutching her Clima-Tact so hard, and her head aches in the way it always does when she's nearing some kind of limits, but she takes a moment to watch the battlefield near her.

Some scissors guy is scowling at some laughing guy some distance away from her, but not nearly as far as she'd like. She can't tell which is on the Marines' side. Given the walls of ice and stone getting thrown at the man in pink, who looks like he can fly but sometimes starts to fall and scowl, she's not going to approach to find out who is her pseudo-ally and who isn't.

Nearer her still are Luffy, Ace, and Garp, and Nami's not worried about that. It's clear none of them are going to hurt each other. The fight needs to end at some point, though, because they seriously need to run: Ace isn't going to stay free if they stay in one place. She prepares to call for him, when she notices something approaching rapidly.

Fuck.

That's one of the Admirals, and-

he's aiming at the fight her captain is in.

oOo

Inazuma is not going to say that he misses Impel Down, because that would be ridiculous. Impel Down was damp, dark, crowded, and _a prison._

Marineford, on the other hand, is sunny, pleasantly warm, and _filled to the brim with madmen, apparently._

Doflamingo's is way more powerful than Inazuma expected, and the only thing keeping Inazuma alive is probably the fact that his fruit is the literal antithesis of his.

"Need a little help, Inazuma?" Calls Ivankov. Inazuma spares them a glance before slamming an entire chunk of ice onto Doflamingo, who just laughs it off, the bastard.

"If you don't mind," he answers, which translates roughly as _please punch him in the face_. Ivankov doesn't seem too opposed.

"Of course not," they smile. "You don't mind, do you, Doflamingo? I still have some questions for you!"

Doflamingo smirk, not looking the littlest bit worried. "Trying to get answers? Guess bad habits really do stick with you, uh? Come on, join the fray, I'm getting bore-"

Inazuma slams a wall of stone into his face.

oOo

There are not enough words in the world to express how much Marco hates this.

(His captain's going to die.)

He flies as fast as he can towards the rest of the fleet. "Organize the retreat" had been Whitebeard's order, thrown at him with enough strength that he hadn't thought about protesting a single second, no matter how much he wanted to. To truly organize the retreat, Marco would have needed three more days, things going according to plan, and not to have the unavoidable knowledge that his father is sacrificing himself for his sons at the forefront of his mind, but the world rarely gets him what he wants, and this time is no exception. So he's telling everyone to gather their wounded, and to have their doctors ready, and their navigators even readier. When his captain gives the signal, which will probably be an incredibly powerful earthquake, they need to get out of here, preferably before the tsunamis hit.

The Moby Dick's gone (which- his home is gone. His ship is gone, his home is gone, _fuck._ ), so Marco has no idea where his men are supposed to go, but he figures there's enough room on the ships left, considering-

Well.

The number of dead.

Marco hates this _so much._

oOo

Coby has a headache.

Coby has seven headaches, all piled up on top of each other. His headaches are fighting. His headaches are holding a screaming contest- nope, that's the screams of the dying.

Coby wants to vomit, and he has a headache, and Helmeppo is the only thing holding him upright, and _he thought he was past this._

Pas being weak; past doubting the Marines; past holing people back; past not being worth of Luffy's attention.

He was such an idiot, to think that he could face him. He was such an idiot, to think he could stomach a war. Even Helmeppo is doing better than him right now, keeping both himself and Coby from dying.

(So many people are dying.

For nothing _._ )

He has to do something- he has to- to- stop this somehow, except killing Ace wouldn't stop anything, and maybe this can't be stopped by anyone, least of all Coby.

"Coby," says Helmeppo urgently. "Coby, what do we do, what do we _do,_ what's going on with you, oh Seas-"

Coby looks up to Whitebeard's slowly sinking silhouette, to his fleet admiral's unflinching gold that looks so immaculate-

( _Why didn't you fight? Why didn't you keep people from dying? Why did you even make this happen?_

_How come you're completely fine, hours into this fight? How come Whitebeard looks like a fairer leader than you?_ )

And well, if he wants to stop anything, these are the only people that could do something.

"Towards the front," he says to Helmeppo, and then shrugs his friend's arm off his shoulders and starts walking.

(So many people are dying, and Coby signed up for helping people. For Justice.

This isn't Justice.)

oOo

There are few things that Akainu hates as much as criminals.

Traitors are one of those. Cowards are another. Weaklings are a third.

This battlefield is filled with nothing but those four things, and he's going to make it right. He has to; that's his mission. Absolute Justice waits for no one, and Akainu is its perfect soldier.

Now the question is which he goes for first:

The coward-traitor?

Or the weakling-criminal?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should maybe state that this story aims for some kind of realism despite being a fix-it
> 
> Take that as you will!


	7. movement

Okay, so Crocodile's pissed.

Like most of the important people on the battlefield, granted. But his anger, he likes to think, is a bit rarer than, say, Akainu's. It's subtler, like quicksand; it sucks him in, and once it has him, it won't let him go.

And currently, Crocodile's _pissed._

Doflamingo, arrogant bastard that he is, up and left their fight. Like Crocodile doesn't matter enough to be a valuable opponent, like he's some _kid,_ pretending to play pirate. Like he wasn't a Warlord, too. 

Crocodile may have lost his henchmen, and his prestige, and his freedom, but he still has his pride.

His pride is telling him to go throttle Doflamingo, and then to stab Strawhat in the back, while he's at it.

Crocodile's happy to oblige.

oOo

Maybe it was foolish of him, but Helmeppo really thought he was past this.

Not the fights and blood and unfairness, no, of course not; he's never been as idealistic as Coby. Those he always expected to stick around, never thought he'd get rid of. Travels in the Grand Line are rarely peaceful, a subordinate's life is rarely valued, the Marines are rarely compassionate.

But he really, truly thought he was past bad decisions. He thought that he'd grown past them, at least. That the past who-knows-how-many months under Garp's command had cured him of his stupidity.

(Of course, looking back on it he's saying he expected _Garp_ to make him smarter.

So maybe it's not that surprising it didn't work.)

This may be the worst decision he could have made in this exact situation, muses Helmeppo as he follows Coby, heading towards Sengoku and Whitebeard's very distinct silhouettes. There are very few decisions that have a higher chance of him dying.

But Coby won't stop, and Helmeppo's not even sure how he can bear to stand, right now, and at least when his friend inevitably collapses, Helmeppo will be here to catch him and hopefully manage to avoid getting both of them shot on sight.

There's something to be said for loyalty, even past logic, muses Helmeppo. There's something to be said for trusting someone enough that you'd follow them in the lion's den.

He guesses his time with Garp has at least taught him that.

oOo

Ace blinks, like that's going to get rid of the image engraved on the inside of his eyelids.

His captain- his captain is fighting Sengoku, alone. His captain just fell to the ground. His captain isn't getting up.

His father _isn't getting up._

What- what's going on? Where's Marco, Marco wouldn't have left Pops alone, he barely ever leaves his side on the Moby Dick, so-

Whitebeard gets up, grinning something fierce; calls something Ace can't quite catch.

"PAY ATTENTION TO ME, YOU BRAT!" Yells Garp as he lunges towards Ace, his voice covering Luffy's panicked "Ace!". Ace dodges reflexively, only his reflexes he got from Gramps' training, so the fist hits him easily and sends him reeling.

Ah. Gramps used Haki, he distantly registers. They're not playing anymore.

Fuck.

oOo

It's lucky that Nami's mother deserted the Marines when Nami and Nojiko were young, otherwise she would have been really pissed at her daughter for electrocuting an Admiral.

Well, trying to, at least, because the lightning hit but didn't seem to have any effect.

"Ah," snarls magma-Admiral. "You first, then!"

Her never, Nami wants to suggest, and squeaks in terror while narrowingly avoiding boiling magma.

"Nami!" Calls Luffy in the same frantic voice he had when they all disappeared on Saboady, and she barely has time to breathe before a rubber arm catches her by the arm and drags her towards him. "Are you okay?"

"Luffy," she manages to breathe out. She regains her balance just in time to see Garp lunging at them, Ace knocked down against the ice a few paces away. She quite literally throws both her and her captain to the ground, Luffy letting her pull him down. "Focus on your fight, idiot! I'm fine!"

"That's an Admiral," he says, weirdly serious. "You're not strong enough to fight him."

"I _know,_ " she hisses. "I'm not planning on fighting him, I'm planning on running. I'm good at that, Captain, you don't need to worry about me."

"But-," Luffy frowns, before Garp's fist hits the ground just next to them, the strength of his punch shattering the ice beside them and nearly sending Luffy into the water- Nami catches the scruff of his cardigan just in time to pull him back over the edge.

"Be careful," she scolds. "Zoro isn't there to rescue you this time. _Focus,_ Captain, end this, and as soon as you're done we'll run and get away from this nightmare of a situation, okay?"

Luffy considers her for a few seconds, and Nami resists the urge to look down to avoid his gaze. "Okay," he says finally. "But be careful."

"Of course," she promises, and as he jumps away to join his brother, she looks at the crowd of Marines still gathered nearby.

Well. Either the Admiral will have a hard time aiming, or there's going to be a lot more collateral damage to their confrontation then he'd have expected.

oOo

Sengoku looks back on the rest of the battlefield just long enough to notice that Sakazuki isn't where he's supposed to be anymore, and even just that small window of time is enough for Whitebeard to shock him with an earthquake that he's pretty sure just shattered one of his bones. Gol D. Ace still hasn't been recaptured, which is less surprising than he'd like.

Whitebeard won't be kept down, and he might be losing but not a single pirate Sengoku has ever somewhat respected ever learned when to back down. There's no way he can get away long enough to get the execution done and over with.

Whitebeard's first mate isn't there anymore, which can't be good. Garp is still in the middle of his fight against his grandsons, which means no one else will dare intervene.

This is not how he thought today would go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No listen I want things to happen too but I have to be realistic and do you know how long it takes to move through a battlefield or get over the fact that you're essentially going to kill your grandsons


	8. plans well-made (and other things you don't get to have)

Mihawk would much rather be home.

He's aware that it doesn't mean much. He spends most of his time traveling thinking that he'd rather be home, after all. The Grand Line is boring and noisy, while Kuraigana Island is peaceful, given that you've given sufficient incentive for the gorilla to respect you.

Which Mihawk has done. Plenty of times. Of course, that's also more reasons for them to try and kill him, but that was to be expected, and really less of a problem than the previous inhabitants of the island had made it be.

Or would have made it to be, he imagines. The dead are really bad at proper communication; that's why Mihawk likes them so much. They're calm and predictable and _quiet._

Mihawk would like to emphasize how loud Marineford is.

It's not even the various grunts and yells that bother him; those aren't out of place on a battlefield, and though Mihawk hasn't witnessed a proper battle in a long while, preferring to cut his opponents down as efficiently as possible, he wasn't always this powerful.

No- what bothers isn't so ordinary. It's more the absolute waste of Conqueror's Haki every single fighter seems to be intent on projecting- and the emotions that come with it.

There are the exhaustion and determination from Roronoa's captain, mild annoyance from Doflamingo, extreme annoyance from Sengoku, even faint worry and antsiness from Shanks-

Wait a second.

Shanks?

oOo

It feels cathartic to punch Sengoku in the face.

Edward Newgate, by nature, isn't a vengeful person. He's protective and a little prideful, yes, but he doesn't seek conflicts, and he sees no point in unleashing his earthquakes just for the sake of violence. He likes to think himself a better Emperor than either Kaido or Linlin, and a better one than Shanks, too, if for different reasons.

But shattering Sengoku's jaw feels good. But sending him and his endless soldiers stumbling because of yet another earthquake feels great, and they must have forgotten, after all, that as pacifist as Whitebeard had been in the past decades, he was still _a pirate_. That people shied away from attacking his territories for a reason; that he stood on top of this era for a reason, and that that reason wasn't _sentimentalism._

They must have forgotten, he muses, and slams Murakumogiri down in a move that shatters further the ice around him. They must have forgotten, and that was favor he'd done them- but they attacked Ace, they took one of his, and Whitebeard doesn't have the luxury of peace, not anymore.

His lungs burn and he probably isn't going to survive this, and so many of his died in this war, and Edward Newgate isn't a hateful person but he hates the Marines with such viciousness right now-

But at least punching Sengoku in the face feels good.

oOo

If Luffy had the energy, he'd worry about Nami.

It's not that he doesn't trust her. She said she'd run, and he believes her, but-

But she ran at Saboady, they all did, and they still lost, so badly. But she's alone; but this is an admiral, and the last time they went up against, he froze Robin and made her scared, and Luffy couldn't stop it.

Luffy trusts Nami, but he knows her, and the fear in her eyes as she urged him to focus was a little too forceful for him to ignore. He wishes he could go back, and fight with her, or at least escape with her, because he trusts her, but she's not as strong as he is, and Luffy is barely strong enough for this war.

But Gramps won't let him leave, and if Luffy had the energy left to snarl he'd do it, no matter how much Ace would make fun of him after.

He aims another flurry of blow towards Garp, panting all the while, and glares when none of them reach their target. "LUFFY," calls Ace, and he dodges another block of concrete just in time, and watches as Gramps pretends he doesn't know that wouldn't hurt him.

His knuckles are bleeding. He's tired and annoyed and he doesn't know what Nami's doing. This needs to end.

Ace jumps up high, and another fireball blooms from his palm. Gramps stopped laughing at him for those a while ago, about the same moment Ace stopped blunting them.

Luffy scowls.

"COME ON, GRAMPS," he yells. "LET US LEAVE!"

"I WON'T!" Yells Garp back, and Ace lets out a yell of frustration and gets a lot closer to their opponent suddenly.

"You're not that shitty of a grandpa," he states, scowling too but something pleading hidden in his voice, "so let us leave before Luffy gets hurt!"

Garp's face twists, for a moment, before hardening.

"You're pirates," he says finally, and hits Ace in the temple with a force that sends him hurtling towards the ground.

" _Ace_!" Calls Luffy, and jumps towards Garp to give his brother the time to escape, before-

"Yoi, Ace," asks someone covered in blue flames. "You mind if I take care of your grandpa?"

oOo

There's a thing that you learn pretty quickly, when you're a Strawhat:

Devil Fruit users can't swim.

It's a fact, that you register pretty quickly when your captain falls overboard daily, regularly followed by his worried doctor.

It's something Nami's pretty sure every sailor on the Grand Line knows, even if it was little more than a legend on East Blue, when she was growing up. It's not some hidden knowledge- Nami's pretty sure every single person on this battlefield is aware of it.

No, the hidden knowledge Nami has, is how to deal with arrogant assholes. She has nobody to tell her if she's wrong, but she's pretty sure Akainu fits that category pretty well.

So, when you gather the facts:

First: Akainu's ridiculously powerful, so much so that Nami's probably going to die the second she tops and faces him head-on. The only reason she's alive right now is probably because he's toying with her. Thank god for arrogant assholes' penchant for sadism, it's saved her life more times than she can count.  
Second: Akainu has eaten a Devil Fruit, evidenced by the balls of magma he's throwing at her, and thus cannot swim. Nami hasn't. Nami can swim. Nami was blackmailed by a Fishman for several years and can swim very well.

Third: they're fighting on an iced-over ocean, and next to a fight between whoever and a _living inferno._ She's fighting a magma-made person.

Fourth: ice melts

(Fifth: this is a bad plan, but Nami's so past that point.)

So Nami runs, and taunts an admiral as much as she can without losing her breath and thus damning herself, and hopes she'll still be alive to hear the hours-long lecture on hypothermia Chopper will inflict on her if she survives this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey did you know that Whitebard's weapon has a name? Now you do. Look how useful this fic is
> 
> Anyways I took like a month-long break from this fic and forgot how to write, and then decided to write a little action scene which I then scrapped because. no. so this is why this chapter is a little short but hey! this fic is a mess, that's not new! at least you get new words!


	9. reach out your hand and find out if you still have something to grasp

The problem, as Kuzan understands it, is that they're losing.

Well, no- that's not a problem, exactly. They're fighting for Justice, after all, and Justice is always going to come out on top, isn't it? They can't lose, even if they don't do anything; that's not how it _works._ Justice always triumphs, no matter how, or when. That's why he let Nico Robin escape, wasn't it? She'd die one day. That's how Justice works; it comes eventually.

(She isn't dead; they stormed Enies Lobby for her. But she will be. That's how Justice works.)

So the problem isn't that they're losing, because they aren't. Realistically speaking, the problem is more Sengoku's temper, and the blood running down his commanding officer's arms. Realistically speaking, the problem is the fact that Kuzan's running out of breath, the way Sakazuki's running after no one, the way he can't even see where Borsalino is. The problem is that-

The problem is that they're not winning. Is that no one's winning; that the battlefield is too crowded, and too messy, and Kuzan wouldn't understand what was happening, even if he cared enough to try and decipher the situation.

This is war. It was always going to be, and Kuzan knows that, and they're _supposed to be winning._

But they aren't.

So what happens, if Justice loses?

oOo

Coby takes a deep breath before stepping onto the iceberg.

Helmepoo, by his side, mutters a curse, aimed at no one in particular, or, equally possible, aimed very pointedly at Coby.

An earthquake shakes the ground, and beneath their feets, the ice shatters as the partially-freed water rises in waves that are big enough to knock them into the frigid ocean.

Coby, predictably enough, loses his balance, falling backward and right into the gap between the bit of ice he was standing on and the rest of the mostly-intact battlefield. "AH," he yelps, and sends out a hand towards nothing at all, because Coby is an idiot.

Helmeppo curses and steadies him, just barely, before stepping onto the same iceberg as Coby, looking apprehensively at the two giants locked into battle near them. So close to them, in fact, that they're basically standing at ground zero, a portion of the battlefield that all other soldiers have made the wise decision to depart.

"Coby," grits out Helmeppo, panic making into his voice despite his best efforts, which really aren't that much to begin with. "Coby, what are we doing here? Would it _kill you_ to give me any semblance of explanation?"

"You don't need to follow me," rasps out Coby, intently focused on the ground before him. His headache's bad enough to make his vision go wobbly, and he feels weak in a way that has nothing to do with anything physical. "I'd be fine alone!"

"Yes, clearly me saving you from drowning two seconds ago is a perfect example of that," retorts Helmeppo, sounding disapproving; but he keeps on trudging next to Coby, jumping from unsteady iceberg to even-unsteadier iceberg.

(Coby doesn't know how, or when, he earned Helmeppo's unwavering faith, but he has never felt more thankful for it.)

"Look, we're too far gone to turn back now, I've accepted my upcoming death, but Coby- do you even have a plan?"

Coby falters for a moment, and stops in his tracks. He clenches his fists, looking above at what must be the two most powerful fighters in Marineford. "This isn't _fair,_ " he mutters, something angry or pleading hidden in his voice, and Helmeppo softens for a moment, and breathes out:

"What, did you ever think it was?"

(This is just a mistake, thinks Coby. This is fixable. This- this-

This could still be Justice.)

Coby clenches his jaws, ignores the screaming that won't leave his head, and walks on.

oOo

It's not that Doflamingo's bored, it's just that the fight is getting repetitive.

These are Revolutionaries, and Revolutionaries, except for a select few, are not heavy hitters, or hitters of any kind, really. They deal in shadows, more than in blood.

Ivankov and whoever-else are holding their own, of course, as any New World fighter ought to. They're helped by Ina-whatever's Devil Fruit, and the natural advantage it has over Doflamingo's; but what's the point of having scissors if there are too many strings to cut? 

Or if there are no strings to cut, just a slow simmering of Conqueror's and copious amounts of Observation's and Armament's Haki.

The fight is getting boring, and Doflamingo sighs and lets his mind wander, lets his Observation's Haki cover the whole battlefield for a moment, uncaring of the migraine that's sure to earn him. He's so _bored._

...that's probably why he gets distracted enough to get stabbed in the back by a suspiciously familiar golden hook.

"Now, _Joker,_ did no one ever taught to not run off on your guests?" Smiles Crocodile, smugly-

-just before Doflamingo cuts his head off, which he just laughs off, of course.

"Three again one, uh?" Muses Doflamingo out loud. "Now isn't _that_ a little pathetic?"

But at least it's not boring anymore.

oOo

Garp clenches his jaw, looking up at his new opponents.

"I'm not letting them leave," he warns, jerking his head in the direction where both his grandsons are currently trying and failing to catch their breath.

"That's fine," smiles Marco the Pheonix with an amount of venom that Garp could notice even blind, deaf and dead. "I'm not giving you a choice." He raises his voice a little, and calls out: "So, Ace?"

"Marco," pants the fugitive. "It's fine, I'm fine, go help Pops, not _me_ -"

"We came here to help you, and our captain-" Marco grits his teeth for a moment, before smoothly continuing- "doesn't require any help at the moment."

"That's bullshit," protests Ace immediately, desperation leaking into his voice. "That's- no, Marco, you have to go help him, you have to, you have to-"

Luffy, from his position between Garp and Ace, scowls. (Even more, that is.)

"That's stupid, Ace, he's your captain," he states. "He's just doing his job."

"His job isn't to _die for us-_ "

"His job's to protect you," retorts Luffy fiercely, and glances in the direction his navigator took off mere moments ago.

Ace shakes his head. "Marco, please-"

"Your brother's right, Ace," finally says Marco, looking down onto them, and to his credit his voice doesn't break. "I have orders. I'll take care of your grandfather, okay? Just- get back safe."

"I'll protect him, chicken-man!" Calls Luffy, and it's a testament to the direness of the situation that neither Ace nor Marco protest any part of his statement. "Thanks for fighting Gramps for us!"

He grins, because only Luffy could have the strength to grin in those kinds of situations, and looks around him.

"Okay! Now we just get Nami, and this all will finally be done!"

oOo

Nami sees him too late, is the problem.

In her defense, this situation is so out of the realm of what she can handle that it would almost be laughable, if, you know, her life wasn't on the line. So when she runs out of breath, stumbles over nothing, and allows Akainu to get too close, really, it's not that surprising.

That doesn't mean it's not fucking terrifying, of course.

"Finally," hisses Akainu, and catches her wrist in a vice grip that soon enough starts to _burn._ Nojiko's bracelet falls to the ground, utterly destroyed, and Nami shrieks and trashes in the Admiral's grip.

He seems oddly disappointed, underneath the veneer of pride and anger he's worn throughout all of Marineford. "That's it?" He asks. "All this chaos that's been caused for _this?"_ And he sneers at her, and Nami-

(He reminds her of Arlong.

Nami can deal with Arlongs.)

Nami snarls, and clenches the Clima-Tact, that despite the pain she hadn't allowed to fall out of her grasp. "If you want more," she grits out, voice damaged and raw, "here you go."

The Thunderbolt Tempo hits the ice, and Nami clenches her jaw as the electricity courses through her body. Akainu laughs. 

"Thunder doesn't hurt logias, girl!" He booms out, and reaches towards her once again-

"No," mutters Nami, panting, "but it does shatter ice, idiot." She slams her Clima-Tact down, one last time, and only has the time to see Akainu's eyes widen-

and then the ground opens up under both of them, and they plunge into dark waters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> look at that! we're almost approaching a resolution of all the conflicts I've set up since the beginning of this fic! it almost looks like I know what I'm doing!
> 
> (to all of you: yes, I heard you. Akainu does deserve to drown. it might not stick, but: you're welcome.)


	10. Victory/sacrifice

If Benn hadn't sworn his life to his captain decades ago, this is probably when he'd jump the boat. 

This- invading Marineford, interfering in another Emperor's war- this is probably when anyone would decide that this is too much for Shanks to ask of them.

(Anyone but his crew, of course. Their captain has never doubted that they'd follow him, and in turn they have never hesitated before jumping into battle next to him.)

Shanks is tense next to him, Armament's Haki covering his skin almost subconsciously. Benn stopped trying to get him to relax long ago, the second they started feeling Whitebeard's slowly-wavering aura.

(Shanks, Benn knows, has known Whitebeard for almost as long as he has been sailing. Whitebeard was his captain's friend. Whitebeard had survived.

Whitebeard is going to die.)

Neither of them have ever been very good at being patient, though Benn fakes it better, and so the first mate knows how much the waiting is killing his impulsive captain.

But power isn't everything; but some powers you can't earn, and for this war to be stopped, the Marines have to win _something,_ have to escape with their dignity intact at least, and intervening now would only endanger Ace more in the future.

As much as Shanks hates politics, he's good at them.

And so, at the edge of a war, Red-Hair Shanks and his crew wait for a sacrifice to be made.

And hope that it will be the right one.

oOo

Ivankov doesn't usually run, but their years in Impel Down have finally caught up to them, it seems, and Doflamingo's shirt is tainted with red.

(Blood is pouring from Inazuma's throat.)

Ivankov doesn't usually run, and they could stay, and win, even, if they so wished; if they were ready to make the necessary sacrifices that would require.

(Inazuma survived Impel Down. Inazuma made Impel Down bearable. Inazuma-

-is dying.)

Hesitation is often deadly, but Ivankov lets themselves have this luxury, for once, as they stand frozen in place, staring at their friend's too-still body on the too-slippery ground, made even slicker by blood. Doflamingo grins at them, and then, like they've decided neither Inazuma nor Ivankov is worth his attention anymore, turns his back to them.

Ivankov seethes quietly, and finally decides.

Crocodile throws a mocking taunt in their direction as they pick up their friend, and Ivankov is loyal to Dragon, to his ideals, to his revolutions, but Inazuma isn't, not necessarily, and it isn't right, that he should die for someone else's loyalties.

(Inazuma followed Ivankov into Impel Down, and Ivankov doesn't know what they will do, if he does not follow them out and back home.)

oOo

The lightning clap fades at the same time as Luffy's panicked yell.

Ace frowns, eyes still locked onto the rapidly-disappearing fight between Marco and Gramps, his crewmate visibly doing his best to lure the Marine away from Ace. He turns his head to the side just in time to see his brother rush at a somewhat terrifying speed towards-

no one at all.

What happened?

Luffy stops next to a hole in the ice that is their ground, and for a terrifying moment Ace is convinced his little brother has forgotten that he's eaten a Devil Fruit, and that he's about to jump into the water.

"Luffy!" He shouts, and Luffy ignores him completely, looking much more focused than usual, and pays no mind to the Marines taking aim towards him; just stretches his arm and sends it into the water, and that is when Ace finally realizes:

Nami uses lightning to fight. Nami is nowhere to be seen.

(Neither is Akainu, for that matter, but Ace will take that blessing and not question it, for once.)

The Marines fire, and Luffy doesn't even bother dodging; just stands there, eyes stuck on the water, visibly straining to send his arm deeper and deeper. The bullets impact, get sent back. Ace, not for the first time, is quietly grateful that seastone bullets are so ridiculously hard to craft; and then very loudly infuriated that those Marines just tried to kill his brother, even if it's not the first time.

None of them are fast enough to avoid the fireball he sends their way.

He grins at his success before focusing back onto Luffy's expression, watching as it goes from focused to relieved, a smile blooming on his face. "Found her!" He calls, and not a second later Nami's body shoots out from the water as she crashes into her captain, sending both of them reeling away from the edge of the hole.

She coughs up saltwater frantically, and Ace's eyes land on the log-pose and metal pipe she clutches in her right hand before spotting the various burns on her arm, understanding dawning on him. "Thanks, Captain," she rasps out. "I think Akainu's out of the fight now." She grins.

"I drowned him."

And Luffy only laughs, _shishishi,_ and says, beaming, "You're the best, Nami!"

oOo

Doflamingo knocks Crocodile out so easily it could be laughable, if it wasn't so predictable.

Ivankov runs, taking their fallen comrade with them, and he considers following them for a second, before Aokiji materialises besides him.

"Sakazuki's in the water," the man says, looking lost, and Doflamingo scowls at him. "So what?"

"He's an Admiral. Rescue him."

"He should have been strong enough not to get tricked in the first place," retorts Doflamingo. "And can't you do that, anyway, Admiral?"

"I'm your superior officer," he states, "and that's an order."

"You're my superior in no way at all, little lost man, and I don't take orders from _anyone,_ " hisses Doflamingo. "I'm a pirate."

"You're a Warlord, and you're employed by the World Government. I say rescue him, or you lose your privileges, Donquixote."

Marines and their arrogance- but he's got a point, and Akainu owing Doflamingo his life is at least an interesting prospect.

"Fine," smiles Doflamingo, and wouldn't it be funny, to see Akainu's face when he realizes he owes a _pirate_ a debt?

Wouldn't it be _interesting?_

oOo

This is so much easier than fighting Luffy and Ace, thinks Garp as he sends Marco crashing into the ground on his back, the wounds left by Garp's Armament Haki healing almost instantly.

"Aren't you supposed to be their grandfather? And you'd have killed them?" Spits Marco, not even bothering getting up. The venom in his voice probably wouldn't be there, had Squard not betrayed his crew and Marco's so precious family.

(Or maybe it would. Family's always been a touchy subject, with the Whitebeard crew.)

"All of you pirates have made your choice!" Shouts back Garp, like he actually believes that, and tries to slam his foot into Marco's chest to mask his hesitation. His opponent just raises an arm, and grits his teeth as Garp's armament-infused foot slams into it. Around them, the ground shatters further, ice shards flying away.

Garp could win. Marco's down on the ground, lost his balance; is reduced to defending himself. A Phoenix's healing is not something to underestimate, but neither is a broken neck.

And Marco's a _pirate,_ an Emperor's first mate, no blood-or-as-good-as-blood relations to mess it all up; a criminal. The kind of person Garp is supposed to, and has, killed.

(But he's Ace's family. But he tried to save Ace.

But Garp would have left Ace die; might still, and between the two of them it's Marco that holds true to his morals, that is not wavering, pulled between affection and duty.

Marco's a criminal, through and through, and Garp doesn't know what it means, that right now he holds the high moral ground.

He doesn't want to know.)

Marco laughs at him, low and wounded and angry. "Choose a side, or lose both," he hisses, no nonchalance left in him, violent and bloodthirsty. He pushes Garp's foot away, getting up into the air with the same swiftness Garp has seen him use to stab people.

_This_ is Whitebeard's first mate; _this_ is the Phoenix, rising from the ashes of the fires he's kindled himself, not innocent but bloodstained.

This is what Garp cannot allow civilians to see; this is what he cannot let go free.

(Roger had been his friend, and Garp had brought him in still.

This is a decade-old dilemna, and in the end, he'll always pick the same answer.)

"Say goodbye, Phoenix," grimly states Garp the Hero, loyal soldier to the Marines, and steels himself to finally kill Ace's crewmate-

-only to find it very difficult to breathe with a claw buried inside his lung.

"Ace is gonna be mad at me for this," acknowledges Marco wrily. "You talk too much, Marine, and you don't heal as heasily as I do. And you seem to forget I can fly."

Garp stumbles back; Marco's hand comes out red with blood.

The pirate only smiles as he starts to choke, and doesn't seem to be surprised when he laughs instead.

This will not defeat him; but winning this might just kill him.

Sengoku's going to be so devastated, once he realizes he ordered him to go to his death, realizes Garp distantly.

But Sengoku had kept him next to Ace during the bulk of the war, had made him a witness to his grandson's despair and tears, and Garp cannot bring himself to be anything but vindictive, even while obeying orders.

Grief for grief; sacrifice for sacrifice.

This is war, after all, isn't it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pirates aren't nice and neither am I


	11. move forward (or stand your ground)

It's good that Law had no plan for the war, because it's not going as he had imagined.

He's willing to bet he's not alone in his surprise, though. If only because he's pretty much no one could have predicted Monkey D. Luffy falling from the sky, or anyone getting close enough to Portgas D. Ace to actually free him.

Doflamingo's here, and he's laughing; even from afar he can be heard, refuses as always to be ignored. Law's hands itch, for a cigarette or a knife.

But that's not what he's here to do, and restraint has always been one of his best skills. Patience. Whichever.

He grimaces as yet another earthquake shakes his ship, the water rising above them. They're too close to both Sengoku and Whitebeard for comfort, but moving now would be a guaranteed death sentence, and Cora-san still hasn't been avenged, so that's not an option. Plus, his crew is there.

"Captain," says Bepo nervously from the side, watching along. "Captain, what happens if the Marines win? Do you think we'll get away?"

"They don't know we're here," answers Law, glancing back to see his navigator visibly afraid. He softens his cutting tone before saying, "Trust me, Bepo, when we go on a suicide mission, you'll know."

"Every mission is a suicide mission with you," grumbles Shachi to the side, but refrains from making any further comment. Law looks back on the battlefield, and despite his intention to look at something else, he finds his gaze inevitably drawn to the titans' fight in front of him.

Whitebeard and Sengoku's confrontation is without contest the most impressive thing happening on this battlefield, if not the most unexpected. The ground, or what passes for it, shakes around them, and Law would say that it's only a matter of time before either or both of the old men fall into the ocean, but of course it isn't.

Sengoku's winning.

It's clear. He might not have unbroken bones anymore, but Whitebeard isn't any better, has been slowly slowing, movements sluggish and visibly struggling to use his weapon. Sometimes, his Armament flickers.

Law grimaces at the mess that is no doubt going to become the New World, and resolves to wait a year or so before heading there. The loss of an Emperor- well, those things are messy.

It's a shame, that Whitebeard must die, he considers distantly. But he was a relic of an old era, arguably the biggest one, and it was inevitable. This fight was never a fair one; Sengoku hadn't even bothered to pretend he was going to fight alongside his men. He'd come to Whitebeard in his still-pristine uniform, and though Whitebeard had laughed at him at his arrival, he definitely isn't laughing now: gritting his teeth, coughing more and more frequently, blood pouring from his bullet wounds and the sides of his mouth. 

Law watches, somewhat bored even as Bepo whimpers at his side, as Sengoku goes to knock Whitebeard out, the golden glow around him almost hiding his movement. Whitebeard blocks the incoming punch, dropping down to one knee with the force of it; lets out a strained laugh and pushes against Sengoku's arm until his opponent stumbles back, scowling. Getting up, he swings his blade wide, and Sengoku visibly recoils from the force of the shockwave that must have hit; Law's pretty sure the Fleet Admiral's ears are bleeding.

"This has to end at some point," comments Shachi, incredulity piercing in his voice. "They can't go on like this forever!"

Law hums noncommittally. "I'm more interested in knowing what those two are doing," he says.

"Who?" Asks Penguin from where he's manning the commands of the ship. "Whitebeard and Sengoku? I mean, even from where I am it's pretty clear, Captain."

"Not them," throws back Law, eyes narrowing. "But the two soldiers just next to them."

_"There's someone there?"_ Exclaims Bepo, leaning in like that'll help him see better. "Oh, you're right, Captain!"

"Well, _they_ definitely have a death wish," scoffs Shachi.

Law leans back. "Maybe," he mutters. "But this has been unpredictable up until here. Maybe they have another freak plan that'll change the course of the war, who knows?"

oOo

"Helmeppo," yells Coby at full volume, turning back to look at him, eyes crazed and hands shaking. "Helmeppo, I don't have a plan!"

He's aware that he probably should have realized that sooner, but all his righteous anger vanished just a little too late, as in _right in front of the two most powerful people on this battlefield._

Helmeppo visibly restrains for screaming out loud. "It was the concussion speaking," he mutters, dread coloring his tone. "I _knew_ it was the concussion speaking, _why_ did I even follow you, I should have just knocked you out-"

"Why didn't you knock me out, Helmeppo, what are we _doing here_ , we're going to die-"

"You seemed like you knew what you were doing!"

" _I_ made a decision without panicking and you decided to trust me?"

Helmeppo opens his mouth to answer, and crouches low to the ground instead to avoid his skull exploding from the shockwave Whitebeard just send in their vague direction. Coby follows suit, and they both shake and try not to cry until it passes.

"Coby," says Helmeppo calmly, though an edge of desperation shows in the way his fingers clench around Coby's forearm. "You do have a plan. You would not have made me cross a battlefield had you not had a plan."

"I have- an idea of a draft of a plan, at best, and even from here I can see that it's a bad plan!"

"Coby," repeats Helmeppo with the same weird sort of intensity. "Coby, we are twenty meters away from the most dangerous people in this place. We are both probably some degree of concussed. Our way back sunk into the sea five minutes ago. Coby, I need you to understand that _good plans do not exist in our situation._ "

Coby swallows in a way that would probably be audible were they not in the middle of a battlefield.

"It's Garp level of insane," he says weakly. "Maybe worse. Scratch that, definitely worse. We'll die."

"We are going to die regardless," points out Helmeppo. "Because we are standing on a miserably small bit of ice, and in the middle of what is basically the ocean during a storm. There is no scenario where we do not fall off and drown, Coby, I hope you realize that."

"Either your fatalism is weirdly reassuring, or I physically cannot be more terrified," Coby tells him, and inhales shakily as he gets up. It takes him a moment to force himself to move again, but when he does he starts heading even closer to the fight. "Okay. Time to hopefully stop this war."

"Oh, good, we're setting low goals," comments Helmeppo behind him, still clutching onto his sleeve, and Coby spares a low chuckle that sounds more like a sob, which is honestly the best he can do right now. "Okay, we're getting closer, why exactly?"

"They need to see us," answers Coby. "And then- well, let me talk."

"Oh, Seas," mutters Helmeppo.

"Your horrified tone is not helping my confidence in my plan."

"You'll get over it. Or you won't, but we're probably about to get pulverized by our Fleet Admiral because we interfered in his fight, so, you know, your level of confidence won't matter much longer."

They stop, the ground shaking under their feet, and Coby spares a moment to be quietly grateful for Garp's insane training regiment.

And then, he inhales deeply, lets it out slowly, and yells, at the top of his lungs-

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

("Oh _Seas,_ " he hear Helmeppo says at his side.)

oOo

Marco rushes backward to avoid a punch to the face, and almost falls into the water before his reflexes kick in and he starts to fly.

Garp the Fist laughs at him, teeth stained red and chest rising only shallowly. Marco thought he'd be dead by now, but Ace's grandfather is as stubborn as he is, and a hole in his chest doesn't seem to be enough to deter him.

"Say, Phoenix," he rasps out, "would you do me a favor, since you'll kill me?"

Marco can't raise an eyebrow as a phoenix, but the intent is there. "Old man?"

"Long ago, a friend asked me to help him save Ace. When he was still a baby. Asked me to help him, and he made me promise to take care of Ace, the bastard, before he died."

Marco switches to hybrid form and lashes his talons at Garp's shoulder; the Marine's too late to deflect it, but honestly at this point, a wound or two isn't going to change anything, except maybe save Garp's post-mortem reputation.

"Roger always was too charismatic for everyone else's good," says Marco noncommittally.

Garp grins fiercely. "I hate to ask that to a pirate, but since you're Ace's crew- would you look after him for me? Shitty brat didn't listen and had to go and be a pirate, but I still want him to be happy."

"Then you could have fought for him," scowls Marco, "instead of fighting for the people trying to kill him. You could have freed him."

"No," says Garp, and doesn't explain further. Marco can feel the venom in his throat, the anger and disappointment at Garp that don't even belong to him.

"Yes, you could have," he hisses, but Garp only shakes his head, and asks, focused, "Will you do it?"

Marco bristles. "Of course I will. And not because of some bullshit favor, because I'm Ace's family. That should be reason enough to take his side."

"You're still the same brat you were when I first met you," laughs Garp. "It's not a matter of sides. Still, thank you. It's good to know both my grandson will be in good hands."

"I promised nothing about Luffy," points out Marco. Garp shrugs at him with his bad shoulder, and doesn't even wince at the pain either because he doesn't feel it anymore or-

No. Given his paleness, definitely because he doesn't feel anything anymore.

"Sure, but I met his crew. They'll both be happy," decides Garp the Hero, and dies with a smile.

oOo

Ace _will not stop running._

He can't look back. If he looks back he acknowledges that he's running, that he's _being a coward,_ that he's doing all he promised not to do. If he doesn't, he's just watching Luffy and Nami's back.

"Luffy," chokes Nami in front of him, panting, her burned arm's fist still clenched too tight around her weapon like she hasn't figured out a way to make herself let go yet. "Luffy, I think they're getting him out-"

"Water always makes me super tired," complains Luffy. "How come it's not the same with him?"

"It is, idiot," interjects Ace. "They're just making sure he doesn't die, but I don't think he'll be able to fight for a good while. Good job," he aims at Nami, and she nods curtly and asks, "Where are we running to?"

_Home,_ is Ace's first instinct, but the Moby Dick is beyond repair, probably. Still, _home, please, I just want to go home,_ cries a part of him on repeat.

"...I don't know."

"You _don't know?_ "

"I couldn't exactly plan the retreat from my cell," protests Ace, and Nami grimaces in acknowledgment as Luffy deflects a cannonball aimed for her head. "Forward is our best bet, that's where my crew is-"

"Good thing Zoro isn't here," mutters Nami, and Luffy laughs along.

"Nami, how'd you get here?" He asks. "I thought I wouldn't see everyone again for a long time!"

"I saw- I was on a weather island. I just stole one of their thing- I heard and it was your _brother,_ I couldn't not come. Sorry I didn't head to Sabaody, Captain."

"Well, I don't mind. Thanks," says Ace wrily, blinking to get rid of the weird light spot in his vision. It doesn't go. Must be the exhaustion.

"I'm sure," laughs Nami weakly. "But Luffy, how did-"

"Hello," says Admiral Kizaru in front of them, and tilts his head at Nami and Luffy. "Oh, we've met already, haven't we?"

Ace stops running just in time to avoid knocking into him, and watches the blood drain out of Nami's face.

"No-," she whispers, and Ace is inclined to agree, so, so, so inclined.

"It was bad manners of you to escape last time," nods Kizaru. "But it's really kind of you to show up now, I mean, that means I can finish the job, Sengoku'll be happy. I thought Kuma had done it but I guess he didn't? Really, Strawhat, you and your crew are continuous pains in our side- mind you, if you two survived, the rest of your crew must have, to, they'll probably ask me to truly finish the job by finding the rest of them, that'll be tedious-"

"Borsalino," says Aokiji, sliding on a ramp of ice and stopping next to Kizaru. Ace is pretty sure his heart stopping beating would be counterproductive, but it's not like he can help it. "Marco the Phoenix just took down Vice-Admiral Garp."

Luffy freezes. "What? No, Gramps-"

"Annoying," says Kizaru. "Did you get Donquixote to rescue Sakazuki? He'll hate that."

"What do you _mean,_ he took Gramps _down-_ " Yells Luffy, and Aokiji with one single movement freezes his mouth shut.

"Luffy," whispers Nami, horrified. "Oh- oh, no-"

Ace feels so far from his body he may as well already be dead. Marco _killed Gramps-_ Luffy's going to die- they're _all going to die._

"Leave this up to me?" Asks Aokiji. "I've got a grudge against Strawhat Luffy."

"Well, so do I," answers Kizaru conversationally, and they should be moving. Why aren't they moving?

But his legs feel like lead and Luffy's mouth is frozen shut.

"I'm sorry, but I'd rather make sure Fire Fist Ace finally dies. Your track record with executing people isn't perfect, and your mistakes already brought down Enies Lobby, Kuzan," adds Kizaru.

For a moment Aokiji looks about to protest, and then he sighs, and his shoulders go down. "That was mean, Borsalino. I don't bring up your mistakes in front of enemies."

"Ah, sorry. Go on, go about your business, I think I saw more Impel Down escapees over there, we're probably supposed to get them back in prison."

Aokiji sighs once again, pointedly, and then in a movement melts the ice around Luffy's mouth. "Take that as a sign of respect for proving me wrong once, boy," he says, and walks away.

And they're left in front of another Admiral.

( _Please, I just want to go home_ , thinks Ace, but asking has never granted him anything other than hate in his life.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to make a comment on something here but everything happens so much in this chapter that I have no idea what to say


	12. ray of light

Jinbe owes so much to Whitebeard that he can't even begin to quantify it, and it just figures that in trying to repay his debt he'd earn a new one.

He didn't expect it to be owed to Strawhat Luffy, but it seems he is as full of surprises as his brother is. Jinbe guesses he should have foreseen it, maybe, given the amount of time Ace had spent rambling about Luffy's crazy adventures, but he figured that was just the natural unpredictability of children. 

It apparently wasn't.

Nonetheless, debts are owed, and Whitebeard would most probably not be thankful to Jinbe for getting in his way when trying to help him with Sengoku.

Luffy, however, and the rest of his group, are in very clear need of help, and Jinbe's as uninjured as one can be after hours of fighting in a war, so- it's up to him to help. It's not like he can't escape Hancock easily enough; she hasn't seemed particularly enthused about actually fighting for a good while now, for whatever reasons.

Well, those are not his to figure out; he ducks a particularly terribly-aimed Pistol Kiss, and shatters the ice beneath him with one punch of Fishman Karate, tugging the ocean closer to him until it finally bursts free. Ace and Luffy are facing Kizaru, with Aokiji still standing nearby enough to be worrying, and the ocean's both the safest and fastest way to reach them. They are, for obvious reasons, not a lot of Fishmen among the Marines.

He swims as fast he can, relying on his Observation Haki to lead the way, manipulating the water around to create currents that push him forward, and bursts from the water panting and just in time to deflect a ray of pure light with an enormous burst of water and ice that manages to weaken it just so, albeit spreading steam in the process.

"Shark guy!" Yells Strawhat behind him, quickly followed by Ace letting out an incredulous, "Jinbe?"

"Watch out!" Calls someone, a female voice, and Jinbe hears and vaguely senses as both the brothers throw themselves to the ground. Ace bites back a scream of pain; Kizaru must've grazed him.

"A Fishman," breathes the female voice. "Captain, I may have a plan."

oOo

It's not something she ever expected to be grateful about, but thank the Seas and every higher being there possibly is, Nami _knows_ Fishman.

They swim fast, they breathe underwater, they're practically invincible underwater. 

Light can travel underwater, but slower; light can travel underwater, but not in straight lines.

Nami's a navigator; Nami's the _future Pirate King's_ navigator, and the ocean is her home, and she _knows it._ She learned to fear it, she learned to study it, she learned to control it, and now, it's time to make that count.

If she could only get her Clima Tact to _move-_ if she could get her _hand_ to move-

_Just a bit more, just a little longer,_ she tells herself, but she's been saying that since the start of the war, and her body must have run out of adrenalin to offer her, that or her wounds are catching up to her. Sabaody wasn't that long ago, either.

"Ace," she yells, and Kizaru's right there, he'll hear, but fuck it, fuck that, she refuses to give up, and let herself or her captain or his brother die here. "Ace, is he an ally?"

She tries to gesture towards the Fishman, but she goes to move her wrist and ends up biting back a scream. The water didn't help, too much cold too suddenly on a too-hot wound, and her arm burns still.

Her wrist- Nojiko's bracelet- her last token of home, _gone,_ and her exhaustion gives way to rage just enough for her to spin her Clima Tact and create the biggest mirage she can do, covering her and Ace and Luffy.

Her knees waver, her vision goes white at the pain, and Luffy catches her just in time.

"Nami-", he starts, worry on his face like he isn't bleeding from everywhere, like he hasn't been fighting for longer than her and Ace and maybe even _fucking Akainu_ combined, and she refuses to let her tears fall, digs deep into the self-control Arlong had pierced into her, and repeats, "Ace."

The desperation in her voice must show, because he startles towards her and lets out a whispered, "yeah".

Nami lowers her voice in kind and hopes the noise of the battlefield will be enough to cover it.

"Then tell him to get you away _-_ Kizaru won't reach in the ocean, and they're all trying to get _you,_ and your crew will help- and, and-" She inhales shakily, turns her gaze to Luffy, hopes he'll trust her. "We have to run but if we do it together we'll _die._ "

"Yeah. Shark guy, take Ace!" Yells her captain before his brother can protest. Ace opens his mouth, but turns his head to see her mirage wavers and fall, and his face goes somber. He nods once as Kizaru zeroes in onto them once more. She doesn't think he was fooled, doesn't think he ever thought they had moved, but maybe he doesn't know how his light would interact with mirages. Nami sure doesn't.

"Come now, don't make this so difficult," he says, and raises a finger towards Ace, light gathering at the edge with a high-pitched whine that Nami has yet to stop hearing in her nightmares.

Just as the ray shoots forward, Jinbe grabs him, and they both plunge into icy waters. Nami has enough time to see Ace's body go limp before Kizaru sighs and she looks back towards him, fear paralyzing her.

"Well, I guess Aokiji will have to make himself useful in the end," he mutters, and disappears, following the underwater silhouettes of their allies no-doubt.

"Ace is strong, he'll make it," says Luffy, still holding her up with one hand. "But now, we should run. Don't worry, I'll carry you!"

And Nami hasn't been able to see a good end to this since it started, but she thinks she can start to distinguish its edges, right now. It's shaped like her captain's smile. 

oOo

Edward will admit, it's been a long time since _two_ brats yelled at him on the same day. Especially brats that are not his sons.

He glances down to see two boys standing by him and Sengoku, visibly terrified, bloodied and soaked wet, and frowns.

" _Who are you,"_ snarls Sengoku, golden glow intensifying, and boy number one and two shrink down immediately.

"I'm-" says the pink-haired one, and his companion immediately interrupts him by saying, "Not important!", probably because he's the only one who has a modicum of survival instinct between the two.

"And what are you doing here?" Asks Edward, mildly interested. 

"I-," repeats the pink-haired one, and looks at Sengoku with confusion written in his eyes. "What are you _doing?_ People are dying!"

Sengoku's conqueror's Haki weighs on him instantly, and while his companion flinches and trembles, pink-haired boy doesn't seem to notice. "I wouldn't advise _you_ to tell me what to do," spits Sengoku, and instead of cowed the boy just looks tired.

"Garp just died," he states.

Sengoku stills, for the briefest second.

"What? No." Protests the blond boy in front of them. "No, he's- he's invincible, practically!"

"Garp _died,"_ stresses the soldier in front of them. "What are you _doing?_ "

"I'm your superior officer, boy-"

"And your soldiers are _dying._ And your prisoner's still alive. And you didn't even fight- what did you _do?_ How many dead until this stops?"

"This is a war," spits out Sengoku.

"This is _your_ war, on someone that died _20 years ago,_ and it just _killed the man that had brought him in._ "

(Edward liked Garp.)

"This is the Marines' war, and unless I'm mistaken about your uniform, that means it's yours too."

Blond boy scoffs, and pales when Sengoku's gaze zeroes in on him.

"No- no offense, sir, but- but your war ended before _we_ were born, and- and it's useless- I see no point fighting ghosts," he manages to get out.

"That _doesn't matter,_ " stresses his partner. "We're supposed to save lives, and you're just- letting people die, for the sake of- of killing a _legacy_ that isn't even _his._ "

And Edward-

oh, but Edward _likes them._

"Looks like even you aren't immune to the new generation coming through, Buddha," he laughs, and Sengoku doesn't even bother refocusing on him, locked in onto the two teenagers and shaking with outrage.

" _You-,"_ he hisses, and raises a fist towards them that they have no hope of avoiding.

"Well, it was worth a shot," mutters pink-haired one to his partner as he clutches his sleeve in trembling hands. "Sorry about getting us killed."

"I probably wouldn't strike down two of your own soldiers when your entire war is being broadcasted worldwide, Fleet Admiral," comments Red-Hair Shanks from the deck of his ship, and Edward forces down his coughs to grin even brighter than he already was.

oOo

("No," mutters Buggy the Clown from the middle of the crowd of freed prisoners he happened to be hiding in, eyes stuck on the flag of the new ship joining the battle. "No, this bastard isn't here, I said this couldn't get worse and I meant it, he isn't here-"

"Hello," says Admiral Aokiji. "It's my job to capture you back, but I think it might be easier to kill you."

" _No_ ," laments Buggy.)


	13. ebb and flow, ebb and flow

"Red-Hair," growls Sengoku, looking at another one of Roger's legacies. "Are you aware of the consequences of your acts?"

"You can't scare me, Admiral," smiles Shanks. "I declared war on you a long time ago."

"This is none of your business," warns Sengoku; but Shanks raises an eyebrow, at Whitebeard and then at him, and says, "Well. That's never stopped me before."

"Ah, brat," laughs Whitebeard. "I was wondering if you'd show up."

"Old debts," shrugs Shanks, and if his hand on his sword wasn't enough of a threat, the waves of Conqueror's rolling off him are a sign Sengoku would be foolish not to read. "Can't let the old men have all the fun. The new generation's coming faster than I thought, I have to leave my mark while I still can." His gaze settles back on the two soldiers at their side.

"You'd make a terrible pirate," he says to the pink-haired one. "It's lucky you're a Marine."

Pink-hair just shrinks before his gaze, and sways from side to side, eyes still clutching his companion's sleeve. The blond one isn't doing much better, Sengoku notices, and scoffs and boils at the same time.

"Ah, you've talked long enough," coughs Whitebeard, blood dribbling from his lips. His grin is stained with red and it's never been more true to him.

Sengoku wishes he was dead already; actually, Sengoku wishes Gol D. Ace had died long ago, and spared all of them the trouble.

"Never heard of parlay, I take it," asks Shanks, with no small amount of mockery.

"Wars don't end with parlay, boy," scoffs Whitebeard. The pink-haired boy chokes, and gets frantically elbowed by his partner when it seems like he's about to open his mouth again. Sengoku glares at them, not like that's stopped them earlier. It at least makes him feel better to see them shrink, and tremble; he has to admit to being impressed that they're still standing, with al the Conqueror's around, but maybe Whitebeard and Shanks aren't using theirs on the both of them right now.

It's certainly not that they're strong enough to withstand it; these are Paradise soldiers, and what people call strength in Paradise is laughable.

"Well it's not going to end with you, either," retorts Shanks to Whitebeard, shaking Sengoku out of his thoughts. The ground shakes under their collective feet at his words, as Whitebeard slams his weapon down on the laminated bit of ground he stands on. " _Careful,_ brat," he warns, and Sengoku stares at him, disdainful. Blood pouring from every inch of his chest, his crew drowning or dead or fleeing; what does he think is going to happen? This is a war the Marines were set to win, and they're both too old to believe in miracles.

But Whitebeard, for all his power, has always been a naive fool.

"This isn't the whole of the Marines," points out Shanks. "And if your boy escapes, and your family with him, by some miracle, what are they going to do without your shadow to hide in?"

Whitebeard grits his teeth, for a moment. "You won't make me believe you know nothing about sacrifices, boy," he says finally, the weight of his words palpable, as his gaze falls to where Shanks' arm had been, once.

"And you'd better not forget about politics, _Emperor,_ " says Shanks pointedly, and turns to Sengoku, his smirk a headache wrapped in tacky gift wrap.

"How would you like it, Fleet Admiral, if we made a deal?"

oOo

Swimming feels like dying, in a painfully-aware way. 

Ace holds his breath and holds on. The cold of the water sinks into his bones easily enough that it feels like the fire in his veins has been snuffed out entirely; the ocean drags him down, tears at him, and, helpless in Jinbe's arms, Ace closes his eyes.

He ate the fruit, he bears the curse, and so for a moment he allows himself to be tired, if only because he has an excuse.

_Marco the Phoenix just took down Vice-Admiral Garp,_ repeats Aokiji, bored, in his head, disinterested and unaffected. Ace doesn't have much hate left in him -doesn't have much of anything if not exhaustion, really-, but he thinks he could muster some for Aokiji if he tried.

He thinks-

It must be lucky, that he's always been so awful at Observation Haki. It at least means he didn't have to feel Gramps die.

But then again, maybe it's worst, to have had to be told- to not even know- and he was family, shouldn't Ace have _known?_

The saltwater in his wounds hurts, he notices distantly. It's been ages since he drank anything and crying would change nothing, it changed nothing earlier, he tells himself. Be better, for once, he pleads; be _rational._

(This is the worst time for grief; but Ace's never been known for his level-headedness.)

Gramps was _always there_. Ace lost Sabo so quickly, knew him so little; but Garp was always there, and what does it mean, that now he isn't?

Gramps can't be gone. He's always been there _._

But fuck, this is what war is; and what has always been, what seems permanent, or invincible, will always in the end be taken down, Ace should know this. Just because some people are larger than life, larger than world, bright and blinding and rising so fast, does not mean they will not dim and fade and fall.

But- but he'd hoped. He'd believed. He hadn't doubted, for once, that Gramps would survive, and be safe; all of his sorrow had been directed at his crew, even with his grandfather shaking by his side, wrecked by guilt and anger.

And now- and now-

The water feels suffocating, even made smoother and more welcoming by Jinbe, but Ace hasn't felt air reach his lungs since the start of the war. He thinks that maybe if he exhaled, out of his chest would come out ashes and smoke, acrid and dark; feels burned out, like not even his embers are left, and it has nothing to do with his wounds, nothing to do with his captivity, and everything to do with the sinking corpses he can feel Jinbe dodge even with his eyes closed.

This is war, and Ace was and is and always will be a child of violence; Roger's last legacy was blood on the executioners' blade, his father's flag on his back spells comfort for him and blood and devastation to others. 

This is war, but somewhere amongst the violence Ace taught himself kindness, because his brothers deserved as much. Now the weight of it chills his bones. Actions have consequences, he guesses, and his world is not a kind one, is not a soft one.

He wishes his empathy levels were lower and his guilt gone; or better yet wishes he could reach hide in his father's coat, whisper an apology that would probably be laughed away.

Loneliness is his most vicious enemy, guilt his oldest friend, and together they exhaust him so surely that the only thing Ace wants to do is sleep this nightmare off, and one day wake up, or maybe not, if it turns out that it was all real after all.

Ah, but lies are a gift only Sabo knew how to yield. Ace never allowed comfort draped in empty promises, even for himself. 

_Better to die honest than a liar_ , would say Ace to Sabo when they were younger, the one lesson form Garp he'd ever taken to heart. Gol D. Roger had been a liar, after all.

_Better to lie than to die,_ his brotherhad always retorted, but look who's still alive to remember that now, uh, Sabo?

Sabo, and Gramp, and Pops, soon, surely. And all-

all because of him.

It would be a waste to die now, Ace tells himself, and focuses on the salt in his wounds.

The end draws nearer.

oOo

The sky is as blue as it can, and Marco wishes he didn't want to fly away.

The blood on his hands feels heavy, or maybe it's the exhaustion weighing him down. He adverts his eyes from the corpses in front of him and flies up, once again, eyes scanning the battlefield and not lingering on the bodies on the ground. He pointedly doesn't look towards Pops, who had all but forbidden him from coming back and fighting by his side. It hurts, of course it does; but it's his father, it's his captain, and Marco will not let his last act against him be mutiny.

(Red Hair arrived minutes earlier, something got in the middle of this battle of giants enough for him to finally make an entrance, but Marco was the one who closed Thatch's eyes and he knows better than to hope for miracles.)

His family is scattered all over, but ships are starting to gather, people are starting to retreat, taking injured and mementos back with them; it feels like the tide is finally ebbing. Whether the sand it leaves in his wake will be stained with blood, or not, well, that hasn't been decided yet. It's almost a physical ache for Marco to try and solve this, to throw himself at someone, to bargain and plead and make things right- _first mate through and through_ , would laugh Jozu, and Marco misses home and the illusion that it'd never fall apart so keenly for a second that he almost forgets to hold himself up.

The Marines are running out of bullets; he lets himself come down a little, stay still for a moment, searching for his loneliest brother. Ace is distant, almost close to burning out if Marco's Haki is right; not doing much better than his brother, both of them beaten and bruised and yet impossibly unbroken. Marco recognizes Jnbe by his side, Kizaru after him, and hesitates on whether to hold his breath or let it go. Hesitates on whether to go or not.

"Phoenix!" Calls a voice from the ground, raw like it's been screaming for hours now. "Phoenix, hey!"

Marco looks down, and it's-

Ivankov from the Revolutionary Army?

"Phoenix," they say, and the urgency in their voice is out of place on them until he spots the blood on their clothes. "Can you take him away? He's small, can you get him somewhere safe?"

Marco frowns, lands in what is more of a stumble to the ground than an actual landing. "Why would I do that," he states more than he asks, and Ivankov straightens and says, "You're going there anyway, aren't you, what's it costing you to save his life?"

"Can't you do it yourself?"

"I'll go and protect yours if you take him away, how about that. And I'll owe you," suggests Ivankov, and Marco blinks.

He can't save all of his family, he can't solve anything, but-

saving a life and gaining possible leverage on the Revolutionaries, right now, sounds an awful lot like a victory.

oOo

If Kuzan is being honest with himself, which he usually isn't, he could probably stop Strawhat.

He did it once, after all, and that had been when the boy wasn't on the verge of passing out, and had his crew by his side. It would be simple, laughingly so. Tedious, yes, but few things aren't these days.

He doesn't really know why he's not doing it.

The reason is rooted somewhere in Borsalino's disdain, he thinks; somewhere in Sengoku's endless lecture on Nico Robin's survival, only made longer now that Enies Lobby's ruins stand glaringly obvious under eternal daylight. It's rooted in the lack of interest Kuzan has for most things, these days. It's rooted in the fact that Strawhat is one thing Kuzan thinks would make the world less dull.

This boy, this foolish, foolish boy- Kuzan knows he wouldn't mind seeing him fail, but he thinks he might like seeing him succeed. 

He's passionate, is the thing, muses Kuzan as he freezes yet another group of escapees, and pointedly turns his back to Strahwat's escape. Monkey D. Luffy believes in things, concepts, feelings, _dreams,_ and that seems to be enough for him to decide to change the world, and for the world to let itself be changed. It's so foreign, to Kuzan, who has a hard time believing in anything hard enough to act. Ice is slippery, though, cold and always melting. He doesn't think it's unforgivable.

And if it is- well, he doesn't particularly care. Justice will come out on top, one way or another; Justice always wins. That's the rule, isn't it?

( _Whoever wins, becomes Justice_ , said Doflamigo, and Kuzan's never been picky.)

And so Kuzan lets another child run. 

oOo

Luffy runs and runs and runs; his eyes keep getting blurry and Nami keeps hissing through her teeth when he touches her arm, the one that's red and bleeding. He tried to get her to let go of her Clima-Tact earlier because she looked to be clenching it hard enough to hurt, but she shook her head so violently he decided that it wasn't worth it.

He wishes everyone was here; Robin would make her a new arm, or Usopp, or Franky even; or Chopper would heal her, or Zoro would carry her softer, or Sanji. He's not- not as useful, without them, they're supposed to do what he can't.

(But Luffy knew, going into it, that he would do it all alone, and having Nami there is a gift he didn't expect already.)

"Luffy," pants Nami in his ear, hand clutching his shoulder tight enough that it kinda hurts; but everything hurts and this is Nami, so Luffy doesn't mind. "Luffy, do you know who our allies are? Where are we running to?"

"The sea," answers Luffy, frowning. "You'll get us away if I can get us there, right?"

A half-broken laugh from Nami, and Luffy just frowns harder. "I'll try, Captain. I- the crew isn't there."

"Ace's crew will help," says Luffy, and dodges a wave of incoming bullets last minute, only just remembering they'd hurt Nami. He jumps up high, and the landing hurts; he stumbles and almost falls down. "Luffy!" Shrieks Nami, concerned, but he doesn't stop. She doesn't tell him to stop, either.

"They'll help," he repeats. People have done nothing but help, ever since he got here; Buggy and Bentham and Ivankov, scissor-guy and fish-guy. 

"Well, I guess, but we need a ship," sighs Nami. "And- somewhere to go, there must be an organized retreat somewhere, they wouldn't have come without planning how to go."

Nami's smarter than him, Luffy knows, and he's never been gladder to have her here, if only because it means he has someone to take care of the thinking for him. It's less clear-cut now that Ace is free, now that there's no more fight and more fleeing; Ace never used to flee and so Luffy never quite learned to, but Nami spent so long hiding and stealing, and she'll know what to do, he's sure.

"I- to the sea is a good idea, for now. Until Ace-"

"STRAWHAT!" Screams a voice nearby, and they both look up to see a masked man with hands stained red and desperation in his eyes. "Come on, follow us!"

Uh. He's leading a bunch of people, register Luffy distantly.

"Luffy, who're _they_ ," whispers Nami furiously, and Luffy just shrugs. He doesn't remember them.

"Come on," says the man again. "Captain would _kill us_ if we let anything happen to his younger brother!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Locks eyes with you through the screen. I need you to know that his chapter could have gone so many different and you are /lucky/ that I stuck to the fix-it tag. Marineford is a mess and it's a mess that ends terribly most of the time
> 
> (it was either the Spades or Doflamingo, my friends.)


	14. where there is smoke

Nobody notices him when he steps onto the battlefield.

Teach isn't surprised. 

It's not that he's hard to notice; what good would be a King that can be ignored? It's that he _wants_ to be ignored.

Marineford is sinking, he notices; Marineford used to be organized, two sides and one motive and one clear outcome, and now it's chaos.

Teach _thrives_ on chaos.

He's surrounded, by indebted prisoners, soon to be allies, soon to be crewmates, soon to be tools, and he towers over fallen soldiers and steps on corpses he would have called family, once, and finally, finally, finally.

He's dreamt of this for so long; it's starting, it's been started. No one can stop him, now, not with Whitebeard coughing up his lungs and sacrificing himself for his ridiculous so-called family; not with the worst of Impel Down at his side, not with the power of gravity pulling them all down, down, down.

There's blood on his hands and he's too busy to wipe it away; there are his goals, just in his reach, and the horizon hasn't ever looked so accessible.

He walks on, towards this confrontation of Emperors, of remnants, of idealists, and nobody notices him. Nobody gasps, nobody screams. Shadows are silent, death is invisible, and he's not King, not yet. Darkness suits him just fine; et Marineofrd sets itself aflame for people that should have learned to loose, for ideals that should have disappeared. Out of the smoke he will rise, and from the ashes he will build.

Nobody notices him when he approaches.

Teach swears it'll be the last time, and grins.

oOo

It's lucky that Helmpeppo doesn't need to think about breathing to do it, otherwise he'd have fainted several times over in the past ten minutes alone.

The air weighs too much, he won't stop shaking; he keeps faltering, vision getting blurry and only being wrenched awake by Coby's death-grip on his wrist.

They don't belong here.

Emperors, remnants, legends and symbols of past and present eras, and in the middle, the two of them, naive little soldiers, with too big a heart for one and too little a brain for the other.

They don't belong here, but Helmeppo's never belonged anywhere, not really, so what does it matter? They're here, and Coby is shaking by him, and people are discussing the end of the war like that can happen, like wars can end well, or end at all.

"I'm not letting Fire Fist go," growls Sengoku, and Red Hair sighs, like this all very burdensome but to be expected, like they aren't deciding people's fate.

(Helmeppo's never been a leader, and never will be, he always knew. Here, standing in-between Conquerors, he feels his certainty cement.)

"Of course you're letting him go," states Red Hair. "It's either that, or you get two Emperors on your hands." He shrugs a little. "I mean, that's already happening, but you wouldn't want me to get serious, I don't think so."

"Captain," warns mid voice one of Red Hair's crew, as Sengoku tightens his fists and lets out a low, "Now don't get too cocky, kid." Whitebeard laughs, more vicious than amused.

"You're letting him go," repeats Shanks, steady. "A Commander let go, for his captain, that's a fair deal."

Helmeppo holds his breath.

"For his captain?" Repeats Sengoku, and Shanks spares Whitebeard a glance before his gaze resettles on Sengoku. 

"Well, I assumed," he says. "And wouldn't it make a prettier headline than admitting you killed all those babies for nothing, 20 years ago? Great job, by the way."

Sengoku grits his teeth. At Helmeppo's side, Coby makes a noise: anger or grief or horror.

"You're not that good at negotiations, brat," comments Whitebeard from where he stands. His grin is gone, face serious, warnings ringing loud enough for even Helmeppo to hear. "And you keep offering sacrifices that aren't yours to make."

"I only have one arm left," shrugs Shanks. "And it'd get you both what you want, won't it? The Marines' reputation saved, your children safe. It's a fair deal."

"Except the part where I die," points out Whitebeard, but he doesn't seem mad, doesn't seem anything else than vaguely amused, vaguely tired. "You're just like Captain Roger," retorts Shanks with grief and anger and resignation hidden in the corners of his voice. "Already dying and if you can get something out of it, you will, won't you?"

Whitebeard looks at him, and then over to the battlefield, something indescribable in his eyes. Even covered in blood, spitting it out, riddled with stab and bullet wounds, Helmeppo can't imagine him any other way than regal, than terrifying, than immovable. Conquerors don't die, he doesn't think so, but then Gold Roger did, he supposes.

"I could simply drown them all," he says, smile dangerous. "Even Aokiji can't freeze so many tsunamis."

"Try, pirate, I'd like to see it," warns Sengoku, and seems as lost as Helmeppo feels when Whitebeard laughs at him outright.

"I suppose a deal would be the cleaner option," he mutters. "You're soft, Red Hair."

"Sure," agrees Red Hair. The stark red of his scar belies his agreement; Helmeppo doesn't think he could have gotten where he is, sitting at this table of giants and playing the middle-man, by being any kind of _soft._

"Fleet Admiral? What do you say?"

And Sengoku stops glowing for a little, looses the too-focused look he's had since Helmeppo's been able to see him, raises an eyebrow-

says,

"I'll bite."

oOo

Inazuma wakes up halfway across the sky, and doesn't startle and fall to his death purely because he probably doesn't have enough blood left to do so.

"What the _fuck_ ," he does wheeze out, instantly out of breath and not convinced the blue flames in front of his eyes aren't byproducts of his imagination. "Phoenix?"

"Yes," calls out a voice, focused and sounding amused despite it. "Hello. I'm doing your friend a favor."

"I guessed," answers Inazuma, and closes his eyes tightly in the hope to get his head to stop spinning, and his thoughts to stop swirling, which neither of them does, of course. Life isn't that easy.

"Hold still, would you? I'm getting you out of here."

"Of Marineford?" Asks Inazuma, incredulous, breathing fast still. They're _high up._ Inazuma likes to have something under his feet, preferably solid, liquid if he has to, definitely not _gazeous._

The battlefield is busy, messy, bloody- littered with discarded weapons and allies. Inazuma raises his head to see Red-Hair Shanks discussing with Whitebeard and the Fleet Admiral, and oh, okay, he's missed a lot. There are _two_ Emperors involved now? _What the fuck?_

"What the fuck," he repeats hoarsely, more to get his indignation heard than any other purpose.

"You've said, yes. And I said _hold still_. You wouldn't survive the fall, I don't think."

He says it diplomatically, if a little annoyed, but Inazuma hears the message well enough, and holds off protesting until opening his talons isn't the only thing it'd take for the first mate to kill him.

"You said you were getting me out?"

"Everyone, but you also, yes," answers Phoenix, almost too calm, too detached. Inazuma frowns.

"Marineford's a death trap. You don't escape those," he states, almost derisively, and interrupts himself to cough until his breath is well and truly gone. He's cold, he registers distantly, or numb.

"Stop talking, your throat's barely held together as it is," orders Marco, which has to be a lie since Inazuma can _talk_ , but he tries to protest and chokes on what he realizes is his own blood again when he tries to breathe. 

Okay. Maybe there's some truth in it, then.

"And death trap's an exaggeration, anyway," shrugs Marco, like he's not flying over corpses, like Inazuma's throat isn't pouring blood, like this is everyday nightmares instead of the end, maybe with a capital e, even. "We wouldn't have come if we didn't have a way to go."

Inazuma raises an eyebrow, but it's not like the other can see it, and he'd rather not die trying to verbalize his skepticism, please and thank you in advance. He's not Sabo, always dying to get the last word- though maybe Sabo grew out of it. Inazuma wouldn't know. 

He spent so long in Impel Down; long enough for children to grow up, for the world to change, get kinder and faster and bloodier all at once.

Maybe his doubt is apparent enough without words, though. "You're going to be fine," Phoenix speaks up. "It's going to end soon, anyway."

And sure, it will. Inazuma's seen so many wars, some he caused willingly and some he ran away from, and they all ended, one way or another. That's war do, they end; themselves, or people, who cares?

War ends, but the question is whether it'll be won; whether there'll still be people left to claim the victory, still some energy left to rejoice. Joy is so fleeting and hope not nearly as strong as the stories made it to be; grief lingers and anger takes roots.

War ends, but they don't end well, not in Inazuma's experience. This one- monumental as it may be, world-changing as it may be, unfair as it may be- will be no exception; those don't exist. Inazuma's a Revolutionary. He knows perfectly well that history is written by the winners, that revolutions, uprisings, aren't nearly as neat and straightforward as people have been told. Sometimes they fail, and sometimes they don't, and people die regardless. 

War ends, but life is not a fairytale, and Phoenix should know better than to expect a happy ever after.

But then pirates have always dreamed, haven't they?

oOo

Deuce wraps his hand around Monkey D. Luffy's wrist, and barely winces at the grime and blood he can feel against his palm, distantly registers the boy's pained inhale and the shout of "careful!" from the girl on his back.

"Come on, come on, to the ship," he says instead. "Can you all run still? Strawhat, we can take her, if you want," he says, jerking his head towards the redhead.

Luffy frowns at him, tightens his hold. "No," he says, and Deuce can see Ace in the rise of his shoulders, it's uncanny.

"Alright," he relents, and is about to move again, gesturing for Cordelia and Skull to follow, when Strawhat's crewmate shakes her head.

"Luffy, don't be reckless," she protests. "You're exhausted and they're in much better shape, let them."

"But Nami-"

"We're already following them into what could be a deathtrap for all we know," scolds Nami. "Let me down, we can't have you collapse."

"I won't let you fall," protests Strawhat, sounding almost hurt. His companion softens.

"I know that," she says. "I'm not doubting you, but let me take care of myself, Captain. I won't be a burden."

Deuce watches them, urgency screaming at the back of his mind. They've no time, and he hasn't gotten to Ace once- hasn't been useful even once- Cordelia's hand finds his shoulder, and he exhales, once, relaxes his grip on his sword. Nami climbs down her captain's back.

"Oh, no," says the part of Deuce that once would have been a doctor out loud as he sees her arm properly. It's burned, flesh melted right off- and is that melted metal in the wound? Can she even feel anything beyond the pain- can she move her hand?

She raises an eyebrow at him, he shakes his head; it's all going so fast, and he can't let this matter. Not until Ace is back somewhere he can see him, not until they've left this place, not until he's apologized and screamed at his former Captain, not until this is over, Seas, let this end.

"I can run," she states, "if it comes down to that. But fight- I'm afraid I can't do much about that."

"Oh, we're firmly running," laughs Cordelia, a bit of hysteria piercing through, helping Nami onto her back while her captain watches with some sort of unease. "Don't you worry about that."

"Where are we even going?"

"Our ship," answers Cordelia. "Most of the crew is still down, we stayed underwater instead of rising. It's coated. It should be safe- it's an escape route ship."

"You had _more?_ " Asks Nami incredulously. "But- what rose was already an armada!"

"Emperors," shrugs Cordelia. Her hand left Deuce's shoulder. He keeps having to remember to breathe.

"We should go," interrupts Deuce. "We should go, we're out in the open, it's not safe-"

"But Ace," protests Skulll, speaking up for the first time. "The captain-"

"We can't do anything," replies Deuce, gritting his teeth. "And Captain's stronger, he's always been stronger- what good is rushing into it, and dying?"

"But- he's alone," says Skull, and, in a stiller voice, "he was crying."

_He was crying._

"Well," answers Deuce, and has to remember notto squeeze his eyes shut and pretend this is all a very elaborate nightmare. "Well," he repeats. "Well, we can only hope."

"Deuce-"

"He's facing an _admiral._ What are we going to do? An Admiral, Skull, and when we faced a Warlord he sacrificed himself to hold him back."

"We're stronger."

"Is it enough?"

Skull looks down. Deuce aches for simpler times.

"An Admiral, Skull," repeats Deuce, breathless with worry. Cordelia sends him a look, and he avoids her gaze. No one has ever had time for Deuce when he was breaking down, except for Ace, but Ace isn't here now, is he?

"Ace is strong," declares Luffy, confident despite it all, standing tall despite the wounds he sports. Deuce wishes he was strong enough to hope as much as the boy does. "He won't lose. He promised me."

"Of course not," agrees Cordelia, her voice so much more assured than Deuce ever managed to make his sound. "We should get moving."

And Deuce can't breathe- Deuce can't breathe- Deuce can't-

And Ace isn't dead yet, and he's still the first mate, and Ace isn't home yet.

"We should get moving," he repeats, eyes searching for a flicker of a flame, for a hint of a laugh, for a hope he's not wise enough to let out of his sight. "He'll meet us there."

And he will.

He has to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, writing this: I've done it! I've fixed marineford!  
> you all: you fucked a perfectly good heartbreaking-but-familiar arc is what you did. look at it, it's got foreboding intent


	15. and bells are ringing

Jinbe surfaces from the water, almost gets a ray of light in the face, subsequently dives back down.

Uh.

He didn't exactly think this through, now did he?

(In his defense- well, there wasn't exactly any time to think it through.

There had been Whitebeard's orders and Marco's defeated shoulders, and Ace's grit teeth and Monkey D. Luffy's frozen mouth, still stuck in a shout. 

Jinbe traveled with Tiger, and thinking things through- well, he's learned how to, had too with a crew under his command, but bad habits are hard to shake, they say.)

Ace in his arms starts to stir, and Jinbe sucks in a breath, frowns. Ace can't hold his breath forever, and he doesn't- he has nowhere to go. He doesn't know what Whitebeard's plan is, if he even had one, though he had to have one, didn't he? 

There's nowhere that's safe, here. Neither side is willing to give up, they'll fight to the end- sometimes Jinbe is so deeply tired of fighting.

They need- a shelter or a hideout or a miracle, but those are rare, those are earned, those are fleeting. The sea is an ally, for now, but Ace can't hold his breath forever, and Jinbe promised, in so many words, that he'd get him back home.

Strawhat freed him. Strawhat _came_ and Strawhat _trusted_ him, and so does Ace, and Jinbe-

Jinbe-

closes his eyes for the briefest moment.

Surfaces.

"Knew you'd come out eventually," says Kizaru, towering over them as Ace sucks in a breath, and another, and another. "Well, you've certainly made this annoying. Loyalty, uh? Wouldn't have expected that out of a Warlord," and he raises an arm, light gathering at the edge.

Jinbe dives back down out of instinct; the ray misses Ace's temple by mere centimeters.

He distantly hears Kizaru let out a disapproving sound. "I thought Fire Fist didn't run," he sighs, theatrical. 

Ace, in Jinbe's arms, manages to freeze, even weakened by the water. "Now come on," taunts Kizaru. "Or all those pretty pretty hidden ships are going to go up up up, in flames. Light can set things on fire, did you know?"

_Hidden ships?_ Wonders Jinbe, just as Ace begins to struggle. He pays him no mind, focuses his Haki- and yes, if he looks closely enough, there are ships, just at the edge of his range, deep in the waters. Obviously getaway ships, far away from the battle. Not heavily protected either, if the lack of Haki signature on them is anything to go by. Vulnerable, easy to sink.

Jinbe can't let them- what good is rescuing Ace if he's the only one that survives? Whitebeard is staying behind, they all know, but the rest of his crew- an Emperor's army can't just die here. These people have protected his home for years.

He rises, slowly at first and then all at once. The moment they're out in the open, away from the water, Ace's body bursts in flames, droplets on his skin and hair vaporizing with a hiss. He lands firmly on the ice, and ducks down just low enough to devoid a hole in his shoulder. "Finally," comments Kizaru, and Ace scowls at him, lunges with impressive speed, throws a fist at Kizaru. 

Kizaru takes a step back, reappears two strides away from Ace's back. "Reckless," he tuts, and raises a hand towards the base of Ace's skull while the younger tries to regain footing and turn around.

Jinbe runs forward, yanks Ace forward by the wrist; he collapses against the ice with a worrying _crack_ , but at least he's alive. Kizaru raises an eyebrow.

Jinbe catches his breath.

"You have an opponent right here, Admiral," he challenges, and prays that Ace behind will get up and run.

Kizaru hums a little. "No, I don't think so," he says, and before he can move Jinbe grabs his shoulder and slams him against the ground with a Haki-reinforced grip. Kizaru coughs, trying to catch his breath, and scowls.

"Unpolite," he scolds, and Jinbe has to close his eyes against the ray of light he becomes for a moment, just so he doesn't end up blind. He fees heat incoming and throws a wall of water up out of instinct, but the water is too far and the light too fast; he settles with biting back the scream when the ray impacts the arm he threw up as a last-second defense.

"Now, no running," continues Kizaru, and Jinbe hears the characteristic sound of his teleportation of a kind, opens his eyes to see Ace crouched low, still on the ground form where Jinbe threw him, out of breath and bloodied, Kizaru in front of him, rays of light whining and whining and whining, and he won't-

he's not going to be able to dodge, understands Jinbe in a single moment. 

He watches on, eyes wide, at Ace, exhausted and wounded, and wonders if this how he fails.

(Ace looks so young, still.)

"Goodbye, Gol D. Ace," murmurs Kizaru, mockingly ceremonial, and Jinbe lunges, half a step too late, as always.

He _promised-_

oOo

The shot lands at his feet with a _bang,_ and Borsalino holds back at the last second.

"Now, now," says Benn Beckman, stepping fully in-between him and Fire Fist. "I really wouldn't recommend doing that."

Borsalino glances back. Sure enough, he can see a sniper's figure, focused on him, the faintest hint of smoke coming out of the gun. He grimaces.

"So your Captain decided to play after all, uh. It's not like him to step into people's matters," he comments, and Beckmann shrugs at him, seemingly disinterested.

Benn Beckmann, if Borsalino remembers well, is too fucking smart for everyone else's own good. 

"You have new orders," he announces, and Borsalino raises an eyebrow and then a second one, for good measure.

"From _you?_ "

Beckmann only grins.

He resembles his captain only in the worst ways, muses Borsalino. "Well, your little interlude's been fun," he says out loud instead. "You'll step aside, now."

"I think you'll find I won't. This is one very polite young man, and my captain likes him, you see."

"Ah," nods Borsalino. "But I have a duty, and as much as I'd like to I can't shirk it."

Beckmann steps forward, a little."You have new orders, I said," he repeats. His hand isn't even on his gun, and Borsalino eyes the calm of his shoulders and sighs, just a little.

How troublesome. Sakazuki would rush forward, would get himself killed perhaps, but Borsalino shrugs a bit, glances towards his only superior officer. Frowns.

Sengoku stands too still, anger drained out of him, and he stands out from the frenzy of the battlefield. Whitebeard smiles at him, wry and hateful and grudgingly respectful.

Red Hair is nowhere to be seen. It's just the two of them, this duo of giants, and the ground isn't shaking nearly enough for them to be actually fighting- there haven't been any tremors in the air for a while, now, now that Borsalino thinks about it.

_Something happened_ , he realizes distantly. _And I missed it._

Few things go by too fast for him, but he missed this.

"Uh," he says, turning back to Beckmann. "A truce? For this?"

He gestures at Ace's still crumbled form. The boy is shaking; there's blood under his nails from where they've dug into his palms. A truce, for this? For this pale vestige of what had once shone so bright? Whitebeard's a fool, it's well-known, but Sengoku usually isn't.

"Do you care?" Retorts Beckmann, but he doesn't seem to expect an answer. It's a fair point; Borsalino doesn't, not really. Justice is something he believes, something he joined the Marines for, once, but it's lost his shine since then, and he's tired of repolishing it. So what if his Justice is muddled? Don't look at the sun's rays from too close and they won't burn you.

If this is Justice enough for the Fleet Admiral, well, it's good enough for Borsalino, he guesses.

"Ha," he laughs. "How wasteful."

Beckmann looks at him with narrowed eyes. He might hate him, Borsalino realizes with the kind of disinterest that always accompanies those realizations. People despise people for all sorts of reasons, and then they call those morals or ethics or justice. Borsalino used to bother, too, and then he didn't. He's had his time being righteous; it'd gotten tedious. It'd gotten hard. Who has the time for those kinds of things?

Sakazuki is blind and Kuzan is naive, and Borsalino is tired. They make fine friends, the three of them.

"A truce, " he repeats, and Beckmann from the back of his throat makes a noise of dissent. "No."

"No?"

"A sacrifice," he states, his voice calm and measured and falsely indifferent. There's something under there, anger or disappointment maybe, but Benn Beckmann's smart, as shifty as his captain, and Borsalino gives up on understanding him just as he starts to try.

Instead he laughs.

"Ah," he lets out, deeply amused by this mascarade of a victory. He tilts his head back towards the sky. "And now what do we do?"

Beckmann tilts his head right, then left, like he's listening for bells that haven't rung yet.

"What else? We wait."

oOo

Nami grits her teeth for what feels like the hundredth time, and probably is, now that she thinks about it.

"Fuck this day," she mutters under her breath. The woman carrying her laughs; Nami doesn't know her name, because that would be too good, to know the name of the person she's entrusting her life to. "Don't worry, we'll get out of here soon enough," she reassures, and Nami doesn't believe her, not one bit, but she appreciates the white lie nonetheless.

Instead of answering she casts her eyes to the battlefield around them. Things are- winding down, it seems. It was easier to see, when she was up in the air next to Ace, Marineford's arena easy to decipher. It was easier to bear, too, the blood not as striking, the yells and grunts muddled, the details lost. She wonders what it says about the Marines, that their Fleet Admiral isn't willing to see the wounds he's ordered. That he's a coward.

Not that Nami has any room to judge. She's a coward herself, after all, and soon enough she tears her gaze away from cut limbs and slashed eyes and unmoving corpses, casts it up and far away. She winces when she spots Aokiji, almost instinctively for all that she's faced him twice only; but his back is turned to them and this particular bit of luck doesn't seem to want to turn against them right now.

That's all she can see. She sighs, had hoped to spot Ace somewhere, or his Fishman ally. But hopefully their disappearance means they're safe, means they're done; it has to. She glances at Luffy, running next to them, dodging and sending back bullets and distributing punches even though his knuckles are bleeding, and hopes, for his sake. 

She hadn't wanted to be a burden, but she's well out of the fight now, and the other three seem intent on covering them as they retreat, masked man securing the path ahead with brutality she wouldn't have expected, Luffy and the other stranger at their backs. Beaten and bruised and tired, all of them, and Nami misses her crew so strikingly for a moment she has to bite back tears. Luffy's there, but he looks like he does when the fight is over, and Nami doesn't know who's going to patch him up, where they're going after this, what's the plan. She wants something steady at her side, and her family is so far away.

But no matter. She won't have the luxury of rest; she's a navigator, and they're escaping through the sea. She's a navigator, and they're carrying her captain, and Nami hasn't led Luffy wrong, not yet. Not ever.

She closes her eyes, tilts her head to catch the wind, frowns at the way it's changing too rapidly. A tornado, so suddenly? But if Aokiji's ice was going to create one it would have happened ages ago.

So why are the winds shifting, the air rushing like something massive is coming? It's weather, and Nami for all her faults knows weather, Nami knows the Grand Line, this isn't supposed to happen.

It's like- something is sucking the air in. But what?

And more importantly- for what?

oOo

Marco lands and has to wrench himself upright, arms heavy and legs laden with tension. He managed to get Inazuma to an escape team, fishmen going back and forth between the battlefield and the hidden ships, and now he stands disoriented and at a loss for what to do.

Against his will, his eyes get dragged back to his captain. The last words they exchanged were hurried, almost stern, and he aches for a kinder goodbye; but beyond it all Pops is the captain, and Marco is the first mate, and their duty is to their crew, always.

All else could fail, all else could burn, all else could die, and as long as his crew's flag still flies, as long as he still draws breath, as long as Whitebeard's reign has not been declared over, his duty is to the crew. He bows his head against the weight of a truth he's known for years, and reaches with Haki towards his father's comforting presence, for what may well be the last time.

Preemptive grief strikes him and he rejects it in a single breath- to the crew, to the crew, to his family while he can still call them family.

What point is there in rushing tragedy? It'll come soon enough. The end is near but bells have not yet tolled; the sky darkens, and Marco is not foolish enough to beg the storm he's been heading towards not to break.

He straightens. He gets up. He breathes. His lungs burn and he bursts into flames one last time, and rises, rises, rises.

(Phoenixes rise from ashes, and sometimes they create them, even.)

Pops from far away slams Murakumogiri down onto the ground, and even from the air Marco feels the shockwave go through the ground.

"Everyone!" He calls out. The battlefield freezes for a moment, people turning to stare at him. Marco freezes, feeling impossibly lonely in the air, and hopes, against everything he's ever learned, for a miracle.

"For all those years, I was honored that you called me your father. But my era lasted long enough! It's time for the young to soar, now. As such-" he declares, and Marco wishes, wishes, for him to stop, right now. Isn't it a father's job to protect his children? "As such, these are my last orders to you!"

(Miracles are hard-earned, and Marco's already gotten too many of them.)

"Go, sail the seas! The future is yours to mold, its treasures yours to find. Escape! Be free, be happy! As your captain-"

And Marco can only stare, and stare, and stare. His flames roar to life around him, scream something Marco would never let himself say, for fear of hurting his father further. There's a plea stuck at the back of his throat, and something is wrong, something is wrong, something is _wrong-_

"I officially declare the Whitebeard pirates disbanded!"

This isn't how it's supposed to go, why is the world so still, what-

Marco dives as fast as he can towards his father's unprotected back, where he usually spends his fights, heart beating in his throat, warnings bells ringing in his ears, the focus he'd extended towards his father's Haki screaming at him. He flies fast and fast, and who cares if it's mutiny, the crew is gone, his duty taken away even as he was clutching onto it as tight as he could. Who cares? This is his _father._

He reaches out, flames cold and focused and revengeful-

But he falls short, and Akainu, almost surging out of nowhere, sinks a molten lava fist into Whitebeard's chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)


	16. gravity

"Old guy's gonna die, isn't he," pants out Strawhat, as they stand on the edge of the water, hidden away from sight.

Deuce frowns at him, turning from staring at Whitebeard's silhouette in the distance, too far away to really distinguish anything. "Well, he disbanded the crew," he says eventually.

"Ace liked him," says Luffy. "Didn't he?"

"He's not dead," points out his navigator, "not yet." She sounds defeated; Strawhat glances at her and frowns. Cordelia sighs heavily.

"Captain liked him, yeah," she says. Quieter, "we all did. He was- well."

"Well," echoes Deuce. He wants to laugh but it'd end up a sob, he thinks. Just get to the end, just get to the end; one thing at a time, get Strawhat to safety first, worry about Ace later, deal with the hole of grief inside his mind never, maybe. "We're here now, someone will get to us in a second," he lets out, and Strawhat's crewmate sags. "Really?" She asks.

"And Ace?" Asks Luffy. Deuce inhales, exhales. "You can't go after him anymore," he points out. "You can barely fight regular Marines. And the Spadille can't get closer than it already is, it's not strong enough. We just have to hope that someone else will get to him. We've done all we could."

"Deuce-," starts to say Skull, and the hole inside his chest caves in deeper. "We could go."

And they could. "We don't even know how to get to him," he says. "And what if we're more of a burden than a help? And what if he's already escaped?"

"The fighting would have stopped, wouldn't it," points out Cordelia. Deuce looks at Whitebeard's and Sengoku's figures, silent. "I don't think so," he eventually says. "I don't think it stops until one of them has lost."

He frowns. "Is that- Marco? I thought he was organizing the retreat- what's going on?" Asks Cordelia, and Deuce with the meager amount of Observation he has focuses on the fight so far away.

"Akainu," he breathes. "Akainu stabbed him, and- wait- someone else-"

"What?" Protests the navigator. "But I-"

He ignores her- there's something familiar about the other Haki signature, and he reaches in his memory to get things to make sense, please, please please please, let it not fail him now-

It connects, and he swears, can almost feel himself switching mindsets, adrenaline coursing through him. "Skull, we have to go. Strawhats, Cordelia, stay there, escape, but Skull, we have to go, we have to _go_ , now, Ace is bound to go there now-"

"Wait-" Calls Cordelia as Deuce takes off in a dead run, exhaustion melting in the face of the terror he feels flooding in. "Deuce, what's going on?!"

He ignores her and runs, not even checking to see if Skull is following. Hopefully their small numbers will hide their approach, hopefully they can be useful, hopefully this can still end well-

He knows how tragedy works. He won't let it happen again, not to Ace.

oOo

His breath hasn't returned. His flames are extinguished. He thinks if he tried to blink his eyes would fill with tears, he thinks if he tried to exist he'd crumble. He breathes in ashes.

Akainu grins, for the moment he's victorious.

Fist halfway buried in an Emperor's chest, and yet he looks ridiculously small. Pops twists to look at him, and Conqueror's washes over the battlefield, so familiar to Marco, so overpowering.

"Don't think I'll be killed by you, brat," Pops growls, and sends Akainu flying before his triumphant rictus can morph into despair.

The ground explodes around his father. Shards of ice sent flying, people screaming and the water rising, and rising, and rising; this is a pirate's vengeance. Whitebeard kneels as Marineford tilts, and tilts, and starts to drown, it and its stupid prideful officers.

"Whitebeard!" Screams Sengoku from where he jumped away when the iceberg he was standing on shattered away, holding two unconscious soldiers between his arms. "That wasn't the deal!"

"There is no deal to be had with liars," snarls Whitebeard, and Marco lands, finally, next to him. "Please," he chokes out. He's always tried to be strong, and always failed.

Pops glances at him.

"Son," he says, rumble of a voice familiar, even worn down to a bloodstained remnant of what it had once been.

"Please," repeats Marco. It feels like he didn't ever land; the ground under him shakes and tilts and please, please, please.

Please.

"Selfish boy," scolds Pops. "It's not your time to die, here." But Marco hasn't ever existed without him, he doesn't think so, so what does it matter? 

"But I can't-," starts to say Marco, and closes his eyes too tightly, feels so young in the face of his father's death. "But what else is there, " he asks.

Edward Newgate frowns at him, fondness on his features. "Everything, brat," he laughs. "The world that was mine is not half of what the real one is," but the world that was his was Marco's, and that had been all the world he cared to know. Still is. 

"Please," he repeats. "Please, please st-"

"War kills," says Whitebeard. "Families especially. I can't shy away from this."

And he can't.

"Okay," he says, and inhales shards of ice and smoke alike, lets them suffocate him, hook in his lungs and on the inside of his veins, permanent wounds for permanent grief. "Then I'm staying."

Pops laughs at him, chokes on his own blood, takes one step back and avoids Sengoku's advance. "I'm not your captain, not anymore," he just says, and Marco takes that as approval, jumps into the sky, feels vengeful and empty, feels heavy, like something is dragging him down.

Still, violence sings in his veins. The world shatters around him. 

If things must collapse, he'll at least help bring them down.

oOo

Akainu goes flying and Benn, for once, doesn't sigh at the dramatics of the Emperors.

He just zeroes in on Kizaru, next to him. Focuses on the unknown, ignores the boy next to him, the pain in his chest.

(Shanks was almost as young when Benn met him, just as fatherless as Ace is about to be.

This doesn't bring back memories; rather grief, for his captain's once-king, now-ghost.)

"Pops," mutters Ace, tone horrified. If Benn was brave enough to look at him maybe he'd see himself in the terror, the guilt, the anger.

As it stands, he grits his teeth.

Years in the New World, years at the side of an Emperor, will make you no stranger to politics' prizes and prices. But paying this one cuts, and cuts deep, when once Shanks had looked at Whitebeard's ship deep in the night, smiled, and said, "my captain liked him," like that was a thing Shanks did, talking about Roger.

Benn doesn't close his eyes. That would be a weakness Whitebeard would scoff at him for. Who expects a war without casualties? Who expects a miracle not paid for?

"POPS," screams Ace, lunging forwards, uncaring of the blood running down his temple and getting into his eyes. 

Around them, the air burns, incandescent, Ace's body lit with raging wildfires, barely-contained infernos; in the middle of it all Benn sees is a scared child.

"Ace!" Calls Jinbe, catching him by the wrist, yanking him back. Ace shakes him off as the ground starts to tremble.

"What-," mutters Kizaru, and the ground around them splinters and cracks, separates in two; Ace and Jinbe rising as Benn and Kizaru fall.

"Let me go," he can hear Ace argue, from afar. "Let me go, Pops-"

"How could you even help?" Scolds Jinbe. "He's sinking the island for us, and you want to rush into combat and get yourself killed? When he came all this way?"

"He's going to die," says Ace, whispers really. "I can't let him-"

"Focus on staying alive," interrupts Jinbe. "This isn't a fight you can win."

"Like hell it isn't- let me _go!_ "

"You can barely stand," points out Jinbe. Kizaru laughs, next to Benn, and he refocuses all at once on his immediate vicinity. "Well, first mate, I guess the truce didn't last, uh," the admiral smirks.

Benn's hand drifts to his gun. "Guess not," he answers evenly. The floor is still shaking, but neither of them pay it any attention.

"You're not going to let me go after him, are you," sighs Kizaru theatrically. "I've made my position clear enough, I think," answers Benn, smirking, and lifts up his gun. Knows without having to turn around that Yasopp, from a hundred feet away, is doing the same.

Kizaru disappears in a flash of light; there's a shout from up ahead, and oh, wrong move, wrong fucking move.

Benn liked a whole lot of people that just died. Benn likes a whole lot of people that are going to be grieving for an enormous amount of time, and his _captain_ is included in there.

Benn has been sitting around waiting for the right time for hours now, and he might be the voice of reason on his crew, he might be the steadiness to his captain's movement, but his hands are no less bloodstained, no less vengeful.

Water explodes upwards from Ace and Jinbe's position. Ace surges forward over Benn's head, landing in a crouch, half-stumbling and catching himself last minute. There's another earthquake, and around them ice keeps shattering, keeps sinking; the noise of buildings collapsing on themselves is deafening. Benn looks up to see the walls full of cracks, to see Sengoku dock Whitebeard in the chin, to see the Emperor stumble back and grin with his jaw half-dislocated, and slam his staff once more as Phoenix tries his best to claw Sengoku's eyes out.

His captain is nowhere to be seen.

"Firefist," growls Kizaru, appearing in front of Ace, nonchalance well and truly gone now, irritation piercing through. "Time for death." Benn tries to shoot him in the shoulder, and then in the temple, and then for good measure lunges and kicks his knees in with Armament. Kizaru dodges the first bullet, lets the second pass through harmlessly, and collapses when Benn hits him, apparently not expecting him to get closer. "Come again, Admiral?"

(Shanks' rubbing off him, he never used to taunt people.)

Kizaru grunts, gets up, and teleports away fast enough for Yassop to not have the time to put twin bullets in his wrists or shoulders, probably. It's frustrating, having to hold back, but they're Shanks' crew, and they can't afford to kill an Admiral, not when that would mean the loss of any escape they might be allowed.

And it's not like Kizaru can kill anyone from their side, either. The Marines aren't prepared for a war with another Emperor; Benn's fight is probably the most intervention they're allowed, and only because it pertains to Ace.

Kizaru jumped left of them, his observation Haki tells him. He positions himself so he's in the Marine's path if he wants to get to Ace again. 

"Get out of here," Benn yells at Ace, and the fucker just shakes his head, because of course he does. "This is my fight too," he retorts, and Benn wants to shake sense into him but he doesn't have the time.

"If you die, all of this is pointless," he points out, and Ace's face hardens, probably ready to defend who-knows-what. Benn _doesn't have the time._

"This stops when you escape," he snarls. "This stops when you're gone, because you're what they're here for, and until you get out of here people are going to keep _dying._ So put your pride aside and _go_."

Ace looks at him with fragile defiance in his eyes. Benn remembers how bright he looked, thanking Shanks for taking care of Luffy, and can't help but compare then to the burnt-out candlelight he gives out now.

"They all came for you," he says, softer.

And Ace- blinks at him. Shoulders go down.

"I'm not supposed to run," he says. "I'm supposed to- fight."

"You're not the one doing the protecting, right now," retorts Benn, with urgency in his voice.

"Ace, he's right," calls Jinbe, surfacing from a bit of water just as Kizaru jumps back in, moving too fast for Benn to get a good look at him. The respite they had earned is all gone- there's no more pauses for jokes and taunting in the dance of Kizaru's attacks, and it's all Benn can do to parry them or redirect them.

"But-"

"Ace," repeats Jinbe, and the boy's silence weighs heavy. "Come on," says the former Warlord. Ace doesn't even protest.

Benn grits his teeth, and hopes that he'll get to punch Kizaru in the face at least once before having to leave.

oOo

Ace doesn't run.

He's supposed not to run. That's what he's always done, that's what held him back when Grey Termina burned around him, when Teach laughed at him outright and he'd realized he was terribly, tragically outmatched.

He doesn't run: it got Sabo killed, after all, didn't it?

And even now his mind screams at him to turn around, to dive into fights teeth bared and infernos at the tip of his fingers. But Jinbe's hand on his shoulder would hold him back, probably, and he doesn't feel like much of an inferno right now, nausea and dread fighting in his throat.

He isn't supposed to run, he's the one that has to fight, he'll claw his way out of hell if he has to. 

Jinbe's hold on his shoulder tighten; he's shaking, he realizes distantly, and instinctively he looks for Pops, but can't find him amid the chaos of buildings falling, people crumbling, the world shaking apart.

If he ever gets out of here, will the rest of the world be destroyed too? It feels like it.

Jinbe drags him away. Ace's fight left him all at once, he forgot to hold onto it; his head swims and his body aches. _Die and all of this is pointless_ , and that's too big of responsibility, isn't it?

But Ace promised Luffy to never die. But Luffy came all this way, all of them, and he thinks even if he tried to blink his tears away they'd still cascade down, he'd still choke on this endless realization, that they came, that they came, that they came.

He would've been fine dying alone, he had always thought; he'd always braced himself for it deep down, and it still comes as a shock, that someone disagreed. That so many people disagreed.

He's not supposed to run, he's supposed to earn his survival, but he lets Jinbe drag him away still.

"I'm not- I have to see him again," and Jinbe glances at him, falters, sets his shoulders again.

"No," he says, and Ace looks at him, loss in his eyes, and feels the waves rising and rising and dragging him down. "No, we're escaping," repeats Jinbe, and Ace-

never listened to anyone, ever.

He fights back nausea, fights back the dread and the grief and the guilt. Shakes Jinbe's grip off, summons his flames for what feels the thousandth time, rises and rises.

"Ace, wait-" calls Jinbe, as Ace watches the battlefield.

Shanks' crewmate and Kizaru are flashing around, too fast for him to keep up, no rhyme or reason to their movements; in the distance if he focuses on Observation Haki, he can feel Ivankov on the hidden ships Kizaru mentioned, guesses they're out of the fight now. Marco is easy to spot, next to Pops, and next to Pops also is a familiar signature. Ace feels his heart stop, feels his hesitation at getting closer melt away all at once.

"Get to Luffy," he orders Jinbe, and the fishman frowns at him. "I promised your brother I'd get you out of here alive, do you think I'm leaving you?"

"Blackbeard's going after Pops," breathes Ace. "And I won't let him kill anyone else in my family."

And he surges ahead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you thought I would let Akainu kill Whitebeard? you thought i would let this half-assed excuse of a person kill the greatest emperor? how dare you. quite frankly how dare you.

**Author's Note:**

> There's never too much Marineford fix-it, right


End file.
